


A Force of Nature

by Eiiri



Series: A Force of Nature [1]
Category: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cohabitation, Ennis is paranoid, Family, Hilarity Ensues, I reject your reality and substitute my own, Jack is optimistic, Jack lives!, M/M, Secret Relationship, post-divorce drama, raising small children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-02-25 19:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2633090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiiri/pseuds/Eiiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Love is a force of nature, it has the power to change lives. What if Ennis gave in to Jack's dream? The story would change. What would happen to the lovers, their wives, their children? How would the story end then? Rated for language & adult situations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was the last night of one of their fishing trips, and Jack and Ennis were lounging against a log near the shore of a tarn, sharing a cigaret. Jack blew a ring of smoke up to the sky and watched it drift apart. "Ennis, I been thinkin'." Ennis made a small sound of acknowledgment and Jack continued. "This whole thing we got, I figured out what it is."

"Yeah?" Ennis took his turn with the cigaret.

Jack nodded and took a deep, steadying breath. "I love you, have all along too damnit. An' you, I think, least I'd sure like to think-"

"Jack..." Ennis sounded exasperated and more than a little tired. "You know-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know," Jack stood and paced a few steps toward the gleaming water of the tarn. "I know what yer gonna say. 'We can't, two guys, won't work,' I heard you say it a hundred times before." He turned and looked back at Ennis. "I'm sick of it, I dun wanta hear it any more."

Ennis started to say something but Jack cut him off again. "We gotta act on this, Ennis. You're at least half right and, well, we dunno when somethin' could happen to either a us." He had paced back to the log now and knelt down next to his friend. "I couldn't stand that or fix it, bud."

Ennis sighed but remained silent, clearly uncomfortable.

Jack resisted the urge to sigh, or to punch Ennis. He knew that wouldn't do any good. "Look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me, and I swear I'll never bring it up again."

Ennis looked down, picking habitually at a hangnail Jack wasn't sure existed anymore, the fire throwing harsh shadows across his face. After a long moment, he said, "I can't do that."

"Hm?"

"I can't tell you, that, I don't-" He broke off.

"And why not?"

Ennis looked up sharply. "Damnit, Jack, you know why."

"Do I?" Jack asked feigning ignorance almost mockingly.

"Don't make me say it." Ennis seemed desperate, just barely not begging.

"I'd sure as hell like to hear it."

At that Ennis kissed Jack hard. It was hot, passionate, full of emotion, and didn't end till neither man could breathe.

Ennis took a long breath. "How 'bout we take the long way back to Riverton and I tell you when we get there."

Jack nodded. "Alright."

#

Jack leaned lazily against Ennis's truck. He watched as his friend stood uncomfortably in a phone booth and explained to Alma that it'd be a few more days til he was home. He pulled a cigaret out of his pocket and lit it.

Ennis hung up and stalked over to Jack. He pulled out a cigaret of his own and Jack handed him his lighter. He took it

"She not take it well?"

Ennis blew a cloud of smoke very much like an irritable dragon. "She don't take nothin' well." He half sighed and added as an after thought, "Least not any more."

"Mm." Jack gave a single nod. "I know what that's like, cowboy."

Ennis shrugged and got in the truck.

They checked into a cheap motel just off the highway later that night. The curly haired, redheaded woman behind the desk was too drunk off of some unidentifiable liquid she had in a thermos next to her to even see straight, let alone register that two men were checking into a room that only had one bed. Jack was pretty sure she only charged him half what the room cost but he wasn't about to correct that mistake.

As they walked back out to the truck, Ennis grumbled under his breath. "Did you have to check us into a room with one bed?"

Jack shrugged. "It was cheaper."

"She undercharged you anyway."

"She's too drunk to remember any a this in the mornin'. 'Sides, if were were in a room with two beds and the maid came in tomorrow and found one of 'em still made, that'd look pretty damn suspicious, wouldn't it?"

Ennis huffed.

"Relax and shut up, will you?"

Jack and Ennis each brought up a change of clothes to the room. They left everything else in the back of the truck. They figured that no one was stupid enough to steal some old fishing gear in the middle of a big, flat, dry plain, and if anyone was, well, they hadn't exactly used it much.

Within moments of locking the door, Jack was mostly naked, on his back in bed, Ennis over him, kissing at his neck. He reached up, tangled his fingers in the other man's hair, and pulled his head up. Their mouths met.

In the small hours of the morning, Ennis lay awake. Jack, who had long since fallen asleep, was curled up against him like a child. Ennis nuzzled his face into Jack's soft hair and closed his eyes. Jack smelled like sweat and smoke and sunlight and fresh air. Truth be told, he smelled like what Ennis felt home ought to feel like.

Jack woke not long after dawn to find himself in Ennis's protective embrace.

Almost a week later, the two men pulled into the gravel lot next to Ennis's apartment. Ennis shut off the engine but made no move to get out. Jack turned in his seat to look at him. "Well?"

There were several more moments of silence then Ennis said, so soft Jack could barely hear him, "I love you," and got out.

Jack stepped out of Ennis's truck after him and leaned against his own red one next to it. He looked up to see Ennis and Alma standing on the landing, Francine on Alma's hip. They went inside and Jack looked down. He watched a tired looking beetle fight its way across the gravel for a while as he both wondered what was going on inside and tried his damnedest not to think about it.

Suddenly the apartment door flew open, spooking Jack as if he were a skittish horse. Alma came running down the stairs in her houseshoes. She marched right up to Jack, smacked him full in the face, spat at his feet with a vicious passion, and cursed at him worse than he'd ever heard a woman curse before in his life. Worse than he thought a woman could curse.

She was crying hard, angry, betrayed, heartbroken tears spilling down her cheeks. Jack wanted to feel bad, to be sorry, but all he was was pissed off. What did this woman know, less than he did, that was for sure. She didn't understand Ennis. She probably didn't know half of what Ennis had told Jack.

He snarled low, the hairs on his neck standing on end. "Well how d'you think I feel about you?"

She was suddenly silent though the tears kept falling. Jack was vaguely aware of Ennis standing anxiously on the landing and a teenaged boy across the street who'd stopped sweeping the sidewalk of the shop where he worked to watch the commotion.

Alma pointed a shaking, accusatory finger at Jack before turning and storming back up the stairs. He heard her shriek, "Jack Twist? Jack Nasty!" before the door slammed shut.

The boy went back inside, having apparently decided the show was over. The tired looking beetle was gone. Jack was fuzzily worried that Alma had stepped on it when he noticed it making its way up the pole of the little swing set it had been heading toward. Then he wondered why the hell he even cared.

A moment later, the older girl, Junior, ran out on the landing and hugged Ennis's legs. He picked her up and brought her back inside only to reappear almost instantly with a duffel bag in his hands and a half bewildered look on his face. He came down the stairs silently, exuding a palpable aura of resigned yet stubborn gloom, and dropped the bag in the back of Jack's truck. He met Jack's eyes for a split second before turning back to retrieve the rest of his belongings.

By the time the sun had set, the bed of Jack's truck was filled with Ennis's things stuffed carelessly into bags and boxes, if packed at all, and Junior had floated hesitantly down to stand by the front wheel of her daddy's truck. She looked a good deal like a kicked puppy and was staring up at Jack with big, questioning, sorrowful, knowing eyes the same clear, soft brown as Ennis's. She couldn't have been more than six.

Finally she spoke. "You're why Mama's crying."

It wasn't a question and it hit Jack in the heart. She was right and he knew it. What right did he have to take away this little girl's father, to break up her family? He looked away and muttered an apology.

Ennis came back down the stairs again, dropped one last bag in Jack's truck, ruffled Junior's hair gently, and told her to go inside.

Once she had vanished, Ennis dragged Jack back behind a sad, decrepit little shed and hugged him tight. Jack was a bit startled to feel hot tears on his neck. He hugged Ennis and rubbed his back, wishing he could tell him it was okay.


	2. Chapter 2

Two days after the death knell of his and Alma's marriage had been rung, Ennis found himself pulling into the driveway of Jack's house in Childress. It was a nice house. He looked up at the structure, squinting against the sun, as he stepped out of his truck. "You live here?"

Jack, who had just stepped out of and was coming around the front of his own truck, nodded and shrugged. "Yeah, it's not mine, though."

Ennis gave him an odd look.

"Everything is either in Lureen's name or her daddy's."

Ennis nodded and made a sound of understanding. Jack shook his head, half amused. "It's a wonder folks don't think yer mute."

The two men went in the front door and a voice called from somewhere further inside the house. "Jack, honey, is that you?"

Jack didn't even have time to reply before a petite woman with big, bleach-blond hair appeared, hands on her hips, an odd mix of happy, relieved, and irritated. "I swear, I thought you were never gonna get home."

She came forward with the air of a showdog and kissed Jack on the cheek before turning an unnatural-seeming smile on Ennis. "You must be Jack's friend, Ennis, right? It is so good to finally meet you; I'm Jack's wife, Lureen."

She held her hand out and Ennis shook it cautiously. He felt vaguely like one of Junior's dolls was talking to him. "Nice to meet you..."

Lureen started twittering again but Jack broke in. "Lureen, Lureen, I need to talk to you."

She looked at him, astonished either that he had interrupted her or that he needed to talk to her. "But, Jack," she said, her inhuman smile returning, "we have a guest."

"Yeah, that's part a why we need to talk." He took her by the elbow and led her to the living room, throwing a look over his shoulder at Ennis that he should follow.

Lureen sat in a white, globe-shaped chair, looking mighty confused. Jack sat at the end of the light blue couch closest to her while Ennis hovered around the doorway, feeling out of place. Jack took a deep breath, which seemed to worry Lureen. Long-nailed fingers groping at her necklace, she asked, "Jack, what's going on?"

After a pause and another deep breath, Jack replied. "I am moving out and we are getting divorced like your old man wants."

There was a long, shocked silence. Lureen was utterly stunned, sitting there, frozen. When she finally spoke, it was very quiet. "Why are you doing this, Jack?"

"We're not happy, not anymore, your father hates me, I goddamn do not want to spend the rest of my life selling tractors." Jack sounded as if he had rehearsed that line many, many times in his head.

Hours of surprisingly civil discussion later, Jack and Lureen had mostly worked out what was going to happen. It seemed as if they had been on the verge of divorce for a while already. Ennis had floated like a ghost around the edge of the conversation, not quite sure why he was there.

Eventually, Lureen said, "You take Bobby, I'm not raising a kid by myself."

This was the one thing she said that Ennis could tell upset Jack. Fingers curling slightly, Jack gave a quick, half nod. "Fine."

By the time the two men left, messages had been left with lawyers and Lureen's father, Jack had called Bobby, who was staying at a friend's house, and it had gotten dark. Sitting on the tailgate of Jack's truck in the parking lot of the nearest bar, smoking, Ennis said, "Texas is weird."

Jack, who seemed rather dazed, looked over at him. "Hm?"

He shrugged. "Your five-year-old is havin' a sleep over."

"Mm..." Jack took a drag on his cigaret and blew out the smoke. "What's really weird is that I can't tell if I'm happy or hurt right now..."

Ennis shrugged again. "Women don't make no damn sense."

"No they do not. Mess with your head, too"

"Hm."

The door of the bar swung open, throwing a stream of yellow light out on the tattered pavement. A small group of men stepped out into the night. Most of them went to their trucks or sedans and drove away, but one of them, catching sight of Jack and Ennis changed course and walked up to them. Light brown hair blowing slightly in the gentle evening breeze, he seemed like a perfectly alright fellow, but something about him made Ennis think snake.

The man smiled. "Hey, Jack."

If Jack were a cat, he would have looked like a Halloween decoration, fur all on end. He nodded. "Hey, Randall."

Randall leaned casually against Ennis's truck. Ennis growled, "Get off my truck," and he hastily stood up.

Randall laughed, but it didn't sound honest. "This a friend a yours, Jack? Seems mean."

Jack glanced at Ennis before answering carefully. "Yeah, he's a friend a mine. He's," he paused to think of the right words, "not much of a people person. At all, really."

Ennis looked at Jack. "And he is?"

Jack hesitated. "How bad you wanna get in a fistfight, bud?"

Ennis said, "Wouldn't mind," at the same time Randall asked, "Fistfight?"

Jack sighed, ignoring Randall. "Remember how I said I'd been seeing that rancher's wife?"

"I fuckin' knew that was only half true." Ennis put out his cigaret and turned to face Randall, who had suddenly gone pale. Ennis was at least a full inch taller and definitely scarier.

"Why're you mad at me, he's–"

"I'd rather not break his face," Ennis snarled and punched Randall hard.

Randall staggered, tried to punch back, and missed. Ennis shoved him and he shoved back. Still sitting in the bed of his truck, leaning against Ennis's things, Jack watched the row rather like how one would watch a baseball game. He flicked the butt of his cigaret to the ground. "Is it wrong of me to be enjoying this?"

Ennis wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, "No," and kicked Randall in the back of the knee.

When the bar owner came out to tell them to knock it off, it was clear that, if the fight had gone on, Randall would have needed to be hospitalized. As it was, he had a bloody nose, black eye, and numerous scrapes and bruises while Ennis only had a fat lip and bruised knuckles.

As Randall drove away, pissed off and humiliated, shirtsleeve held against his nose, Ennis leaned heavily against his truck. "That," he paused, "felt good."

Jack shrugged. "Well, I sure liked watching it."

Ennis nodded and got in his truck.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so three chapters in and I'm adding the author's note I probably should have put in chapter one.  
> This is the first major story I'm posting to this site, though it is being duplicated from my account on a different site, I'm very excited to be getting started here. (It's better edited here.) The story is already written in full and I intend to have it posted in full here in short order.  
> That said, just because I'm not still writing this story doesn't mean I don't want to hear your thoughts! Getting feedback makes my day and helps me be a better writer, so please share your thoughts and feelings with me, don't be shy!

Jack and Ennis spent the next few weeks living out of a cheap, dinky, little motel in the tiny town of Limon, Colorado, as smack in between Childress and Riverton as it's reasonable to be. In between phone calls to lawyers, wives, workplaces, and even a couple to Jack's parents, or driving seven hours in one direction or the other to sign things, they spent much of their time at the diner or bar across the street, asleep, or otherwise in bed. Ennis also devoted a good deal of energy to anxiously over-estimating the observational skills of the four Latina women who made up the cleaning crew.

After returning to the motel from lunch one day and passing two of the women chattering energetically as they cleaned one of the rooms, Ennis said, "Jack, I really–"

"They're talking about their sons in law. They're always talking about their families, not us, they don't care about us. Calm down, Ennis, yer bein' paranoid."

Ennis was silent a moment. "Since when d'you speak Spanish?"

Jack shrugged. "You live in Texas, you pick it up. Least a little."

"That would have been useful seven years ago..."

Jack paused in the middle of taking his shirt off. "With them Chilean shepherds?"

"Mhm."

"Damnit, it would have." Jack laughed.

By the time the leaves started to turn that fall, both divorces were finalized. Ennis had partial custody of his girls, but they were staying with Alma until he had somewhere to actually live. In the meantime, Ennis, Jack, and Bobby were staying with Jack's parents up in Lightning Flat.

Jack leaned comfortably against the split-rail fence at dusk, watching his mother teach Bobby how to play solitaire through the kitchen window. He smiled slightly, remembering their first day there, his dad and Ennis standing opposite each other, silently exuding auras of disdain while he, his mother, and Bobby happily ignored them.

The door swung open and Ennis stepped out and walked over to Jack. "How long we gonna stay here?" he asked, irritation clear in his voice.

Jack barely managed not to smile. "You really don't like my daddy, do you?"

"No, I don't. So, how long are we stayin' here?"

"'Til we can move somewhere else."

"Like where?"

Jack pulled a newspaper clipping out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Ennis. It was an ad for a tract of land just outside of Brokeback Village, Wyoming, the small town near the foot of the mountain. Ennis gave Jack a look that was somewhere in the middle of incredulity, tenderness, and exasperation. Jack shrugged and took the clipping back, folding it carefully before returning it to his pocket. "I dunno, I just thought it sounded nice. It's a good little town an' all," he shrugged again, "and, well, there's just something special about Brokeback Mountain."

Ennis sighed. "I can't disagree with that."

Jack smiled. "C'mon, admit it, you like the idea." He elbowed Ennis lightly in the ribs.

"Alright, alright, I do," Ennis nodded and finished quietly, "I do like the idea."

That weekend, Jack and Ennis drove down to Brokeback Village and bought the neglected old farm for just over two-thousand dollars.

The man at the Brokeback real estate office shook his head as he made everything up nice and pretty and official. "I really don't think you boys know what yer getting' yourselves into. This old place, nobody's lived there for years, it ain't nothin' but weeds and dirt now."

"I know," Jack said. "Been out there a few months ago to have a look. It sure ain't worth the asking price."

The man laughed. "Almost four-thousand dollars! No one would buy it for that, 'specially not when half of everybody can't hold onto a job. I'm telling you, old man who owned the place is outa his mind."

Sitting, slightly stunned, in Jack's truck outside the real estate office a while later, Ennis asked. "Where the hell did that money come from?"

"Lureen's daddy paid me off," Jack started the truck and drove out onto the road to head out to their newly bought land. "Also, I been saving toward this for a couple years."

Ennis looked at him. "You have?"

Jack shrugged one shoulder. "Was hopin' you'd give in."

"You planned this whole thing, didn't you?" Ennis asked, unsure whether to be pissed or impressed.

"Not the getting smacked, you getting kicked out, or beating up Randall parts, but yeah, for the most part, I did."

Ennis shook his head. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Buy me a drink and grovel on your knees for getting you outa Riverton?"

Ennis punched his shoulder; Jack just laughed.

As Jack pulled up the gravel drive, Ennis could see that the man at the real estate office was right, there was nothing but dirt, weeds, and a few horribly overgrown trees, their branches already half stripped of leaves. Jack hopped energetically out of the truck, walked a few paces away, and turned back over his shoulder, smiling broadly, to look at Ennis. Ennis himself was far less enthusiastic. "This is worth two-thousand dollars?"

"Yes, it is. C'mere." Jack lead Ennis over to a decrepit old farm house nestled in the bend of a small creek that wound its way through the property. The front porch was busted and sagging in the middle, the whitewash was cracked and peeling, one window under the porch was missing some of its glass and a friendly spider had replaced it with cobweb, a couple shutters dangled from their hinges, and the front storm door creaked sickeningly as the ghostly hand of the wind pulled it open again and again.

Ennis stood still, staring in disbelief at what had, once upon a time, been a nice little house. "Jack, you have finally lost your goddamn mind."

"I know, I know, it looks like shit. That's why they're selling this place as just land; everybody thinks this is just a rotten old house that needs to be torn down and replaced." He put his hand on Ennis's shoulder and continued before he was interrupted. "It ain't nearly as bad as it looks, the porch needs some help and all the hardware needs to be replaced, but other than that, it's fine. As far as I can tell, the roof don't even leak. You know there's no way we could buy a house and they'd laugh in our face if either or both of us tried to take out a loan; this is the best we can do, bud." He punched Ennis lightly in the shoulder and smiled encouragingly. "We can fix it up, won't take long if we work together."

Ennis sighed and pulled Jack into a tight embrace, confident that they were alone but for the spiders and the wind. "What am I gonna do with you, darlin'?"

Jack smirked and hugged him back. "I like the idea of running a ranch."

Ennis almost laughed.

Late the next night when they got back to Lightning Flat, they found a small mountain of cookies, cupcakes, and muffins piled in the center of the kitchen table.

Ennis blinked. "What the hell?"

"My mother's preferred method of occupying children is baking."

"And you can't cook?"

"Nope."

Ennis shook his head.


	4. Chapter 4

"Mama, I just need you to look after Bobby for a little while, no more than a couple weeks, just so me an' Ennis can get the place down in Brokeback fit to live in."

Jack's father gave him a disapproving look. "Don't you be puttin' upon your mother, boy."

Sue Twist shot her husband a far more menacing glare. "He wasn't asking you." She turned a soft, warm smile on her son. "I'd be happy to take care of Bobby a couple more weeks. He's such a sweet little boy, a lot like you were at that age, but without quite as much talent for getting into trouble." She nodded as if she had just answered one of life's great questions.

Jack smiled, a bit chagrined. "Thank you, Mama."

His father huffed irritatedly. Jack nodded and excused himself, grabbing his hat before stepping outside. Ennis, who had been leaning by the screen door throughout the conversation, glanced up from the so far still shapeless piece of whittling he'd been working on. Jack barely spared him a look as he strode to his truck. "Don't say a word."

Following him, Ennis ignored the warning. "Your daddy's an ass."

"Reminds me a you."

Ennis huffed.

The next day, Ennis found himself standing with Jack outside the run-down old farm house in the early morning light of a crisp autumn day, once more convinced that the other man had lost his marbles. "You sure yer sure about this?"

"Damn sure." Jack rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and began what turned out to be the day-and a half long task of evicting a small nation of spiders from the house.

Once the spiders had been removed, Jack drove into town to pick up a few necessary things while Ennis began ripping up the broken pieces of the front porch. Jack returned with a truckbed full of paint, doorknobs and hinges, a new screen door, some wood, various other odds and ends, a couple sandwiches, and some beer. Ennis yanked out the last of three broken joists in the porch, dropped it, cursed, stood, kicked the useless timber in frustration, and cursed again. Jack cut the engine and hopped out of the cab. He held a sandwich out to Ennis. "Have some lunch."

Ennis took the sandwich and bit into it gratefully. "Much better than beans."

Jack, taking a bite of his own sandwich, shook his head. "Don't even go there."

"I didn't eat beans for more 'an a month after that summer."

"Me neither."

Ennis took another bite."Worst job."

"Worst boss."

"No shit. Goddamn Aguirre..."

"Wouldn't gimme a job the next summer, sonofabitch."

"Sonofabitch," Ennis agreed, nodding.

By the time the sun had set that evening, the front porch was fixed, the shrieking screen door had been removed and was piled by the driveway with the three half-rotten, mouse and louse infested mattresses that had been thrown out with the spiders. Over the next several days, Jack and Ennis replaced every piece of hardware in the house, repainted the outside a warm, yellowish taupe – the product of mixing several returned paint colors that had cost next to nothing with a big bucket of white paint, fixed the broken window, replaced the screen door, re-grouted all the tile in the bathroom and kitchen, done more repainting and small repairs, added a few walls in the already mostly-finished attic to make bedrooms for their kids, and ran plumbing for a bathroom in the attic right above the one downstairs. A handful of window air conditioners would be needed when the weather warmed up again, but, as it was September, they figured that could wait. With the purchase of some new mattresses and furniture from a store that was going out of business and a few pieces from Goodwill to add to what had been left by the previous owner, the house was ready to be lived in.

Before they left town to pick Bobby up from Jack's parents' place, they stopped at the Brokeback post office and Ennis sent a birthday card to Riverton for Junior. When Ennis had gotten back in the truck, Jack looked at him from the passenger seat. "So, her birthday's in September?"

"Yeah."

"And she's six?"

"Yeah, so?"

Jack cracked open a peanut and flicked the shell out the window. "I can do that math. You an' Alma sure didn't take long."

Ennis shook his head. "You know what math I can do? Bobby was born in April; you'd only been married since October."

"Not my fault," Jack said defensively.

" _How_ is that not your fault?"

"Just trust me, it's not." Jack sat up straighter.

"No way that ain't your fault."

"I'm tellin' ya, it ain't!"

"How the hell is that not your fault?"

"It's complicated."

"We got time."

Jack sighed.


	5. Chapter 5

Bobby spent half the ride back to Brokeback bouncing excitedly in his seat, chattering animatedly about every single thing that crossed his mind, and quite clearly irritating Ennis. The other half of the ride he spent asleep in Jack's lap.

After several minutes of silence, Ennis grumbled more than said, "You have no idea how glad I am right now that I didn't know you as a kid."

Jack snorted with amusement. "I ain't changed that much, bud."

A while later they pulled up and parked in front of their new house. Jack carried Bobby upstairs and put him to bed before joining Ennis on the front porch. The front door was open and the screen door was shut, letting light spill out onto the mix of gravel, dirt, and tough grass that made up the yard. Jack put a hand on Ennis's back. "Welcome home, cowboy."

Ennis turned to face Jack, smiling slightly but warmly. "Welcome home, darlin."

They embraced and kissed.

Over the next couple months, Ennis got a job in town so he could pay child support to Alma while Jack got their ranch started. This was made easier by the surprising fact that Jack actually owned a tractor.

Ennis stood, gawking in disbelief at the piece of equipment. "Alright, what's the story here?"

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. "I was a tractor salesman for a while, somebody traded this thing in for a new one 'cause this'n was busted. Lureen's old man told me to take it to the junk yard, but I figured it was just a wiring issue so I put it in storage instead, got it working again."

"Yer either amazing or crazy. Probably both."

Jack bowed playfully.

Not long after that, Jack was able to beg an old half-busted trailer off his father and fix it as well. Bobby sat on the lower rail of the fence that ran around the pasture nearest the house, holding onto the top rail for balance, swinging his booted feet, and watched his daddy work. "Daddy, you 'n Ennis fixed the house, right?"

Jack nodded and kicked at the jammed gate of the trailer. "That's right."

"An' you fixed the tractor."

"Uhhuh." Jack grabbed the gate and yanked.

"Now yer fixin' the trailer."

"Yup." Jack picked up a metal wrench and hit the stuck hinge with it, making the entire frame of the trailer ring. The gate swung open. "I can fix just about anythin'."

Bobby grinned.

A couple weekends later, Ennis spent the day being taught how to play solitaire by Bobby, who was going to kindergarten in town, while Jack went to the next town over to retrieve a couple cows. When Jack returned that evening, he put the two cows out in the field to graze and revealed that he had an extra companion: a young goat. While Bobby played happily with the little critter, Ennis looked at Jack. "Why?"

Jack shrugged. "Why not?"

That December, when Junior went on Christmas break, was the first time Ennis's girls visited their father's new home. Ennis drove down to Riverton to pick up his daughters and drove back being regaled with stories of Junior losing her first tooth – complete with a demonstration of how she could whistle through the gap – Francine making friends with a little bird that sounded like a robin to Ennis, and on and on and on. Ennis wondered why his girls, who normally didn't talk that much more than he did, were being so chatty until Junior got to the part about hot cocoa, marshmallows, and cookies. That much sugar can explain most any unusual behavior.

When they got to the house at dusk, the girls tumbled out into the snowy yard. Junior looked up at the sky and saw the moon cradled in the dip that gave Brokeback Mountain its name. She paused, her breath turning to fog in the cold air. "It's real pretty here."

Ennis looked at her, then up at the mountain and the moon. "Yeah, it is." He picked up Junior and Francine and headed inside.

In the house, Francine immediately curled up on the couch and fell asleep while Junior and Bobby stood facing each other, standing a few feet apart, eyes narrowed, reminding both their fathers of dogs meeting for the first time. After a while, Bobby firmly announced that Junior was not allowed in his room and stomped upstairs. Junior ran to the foot of the stairs and shouted that he wasn't allowed in hers, either. She turned to Ennis, one hand still on the railing. "Daddy, where's my room?"

Most of the next day was spent putting up a small Christmas tree and decorating it with little makeshift ornaments and a tinfoil star. Ennis thought it was ridiculous, but it was good enough for the kids and Jack seemed to like it. That night, once the kids were asleep, Jack and Ennis lay in bed together, the lights out, eyes closed but still awake, the room that was allegedly Ennis's empty across the hall. Jack mumbled, "We need a dog."

"The goat not good enough?"

Jack wrapped his arms around Ennis's waist and tuck his head against his neck. "No, the goat ain't good enough. C'mon, if yer gonna run a ranch you gotta have a dog. 'Sides, I like dogs."

Ennis smiled softly, remembering how Jack had kept the runt of the litter of puppies they'd had with him in his coat as they rode up to the campsite the summer they met. "I know you do." He sighed. "Fine, we can get a dog. Tell the kids it's their Christmas present; two birds, one stone."

Jack smiled and kissed Ennis's cheek. "That works."


	6. Chapter 6

On Christmas Eve morning, Jack and Ennis woke earlier than usual, had some only mildly burnt toast piled with whatever they found in the fridge, and went out to tend to the two cows and goat. When they came back in, the sun had risen. They woke up their kids, or rather, Ennis woke up Francine and she took great pleasure in waking her sister and Bobby, who had neglected to ban the younger girl from his room. Once the kids were huddled around the kitchen table, blearily spooning generic brand cereal into their mouths, Jack informed them that they were going shopping. Junior gave him the kind of sanity questioning look Jack was used to getting from her father. "But, it's Christmas Eve, you don't go shopping 'gain 'til after Christmas when everythin's on sale."

Jack, quite impressed by the little girl's logic, had no response. Ennis mumbled over his third cup of coffee that morning, "We're gettin' you kids' Christmas present."

Bobby paused, spoon halfway between bowl and mouth, looking thoroughly confused. "I thought ya wasn't s'posed to be there when your presents are got."

Jack shrugged, "This's a special case."

The five of them got suited up in jackets, boots, and mittens or gloves, piled into Jack's truck, the kids riding in the back huddled under a blanket, and drove to a kennel just outside town the other direction. Hopping down from the back of the truck and realizing what their Christmas present was, the kids let out squeals of delight before running inside to pick out a puppy, their fathers following after them.

Jack and Ennis stood by the wall, Jack chatting casually with the young widow who ran the kennel, as the kids went from pen to pen, playing with and debating the merits of the various puppies in that straightforward, innocently logical manner children decide things of great importance. After a while, a kind of stalemate was reached, each child having his or her own puppy of preference.

Ennis looked between them and said, more to Jack than anyone else, "We are absolutely not getting three dogs."

Francine held up what looked like a snowball brought to life. "Daddy, this'n's soft."

Ennis hesitated, not sure how to respond. Jack, who had, by Francine's own request, started calling her Jenny a couple days ago, gently took the Great Pyrenees puppy from her and set it back in its pen with its siblings. "A white dog will not stay white, not working on a ranch." He gently ruffled the girl's hair. "Sorry, Jenny, it is cute."

Bobby, whose puppy of choice resembled a little black teddybear, gave Junior a superior grin. Junior glared, and cuddled the little ball of tricolor fluff she had taken a liking to, to her chest.

The young widow shrugged. "Both the Giant Schnauzer and Australian Shepherd are good cattle dogs."

Jenny pointed at the puppy her sister was holding. "It ain't white, and it's soft."

Jack looked at Ennis. "You said we weren't getting three."

"I did not mean we could get two." If it weren't for the kids, Ennis knew he would have cursed.

"C'mon, Ennis," Jack said, pleading on the kids' behalf as they stared, shiny-eyed, up at the two men.

Ennis found himself thinking, _I am surrounded by children, one a them's the same age as me, but I am surrounded by children._ He sighed.

Jenny spent the ride back smushed between her sister and Bobby, the two squirming puppies in her lap.

Back at the house, the real battle of the day began as the kids fought valiantly over what to name the pups. Leaning against the counter in the kitchen, drinking a beer, Ennis said to Jack, "They sound like fighting ally-cats."

"No," Jack took a bite of a Slim Jim, "they sound like us."

By the end of the night, the little black Schnauzer had been dubbed Coalie – which amused Jack, who had grown up with a collie dog, to no end – and the Shepherd had been given the title of Sheriff.

The next day as he lugged a couple of branches he had just pruned off the overgrown apple trees to the disorderly woodpile behind the house, Ennis was smacked in the back of the head by a snowball. He turned to see Jack standing, hands in pockets, gazing up at the crest of the mountain.

"Jack, I know that was you!"

Jack gave him a fairly convincing look of bewildered innocence. "What're you talkin' 'bout?"

Just then another, smaller snowball hit Jack in the ear and Bobby ran, shrieking with laughter around the corner of the house. Within moments, the yard was a war zone. Alliances were made and broken as the pattern of attack shifted from kids against grown-ups to Twists against del Mars to Jenny and Bobby against Junior and Jack against Ennis and finally to every man, boy, and girl for him or herself.

That evening as the five of them sat wrapped in blankets before the fire, hair spiked with damp, hands clutching mugs of hot cocoa, Bobby quite decisively declared that day the best snowball fight ever. No one was inclined to disagree.


	7. Chapter 7

A couple days later during lunch, the seldom-used phone rang, making everyone jump. Taking a bite of her sandwich, Junior murmured to Bobby, "Didn't know you had a phone."

Bobby shrugged while his father stood, brushed the crumbs off his hands, and answered the phone. Jack half choked upon hearing the voice at the other end of the line and stiffly motioned to Ennis that the call was for him.

It turned out that call was from Alma. She wanted to come up with her new boyfriend, who ran the grocery store in Riverton, and check out the ranch to make sure it was a safe, healthy place for the girls to live. Ennis didn't have much choice but to oblige.

And so the next afternoon, Alma and her boyfriend, Bill Monroe, arrived at Jack and Ennis's still-not-quite-on-its-feet ranch. Jack saw Ennis huff as the car pulled up and he patted his friend's shoulder.

When Alma stepped through the door, the girls immediately dropped their hands of cards and ran to hug her, leaving Bobby to declare himself go-fish champion by default. Alma was all smiles with the girls but shot a rather cold look over their heads at Jack before he had the chance to duck into the kitchen. Bill for his part was standing politely if awkwardly by the door. Ennis was standing just as silently, if less civilly, by the opposite wall. Alma looked up at him. "Well, show me around."

Ennis nodded once. "Right."

At first, Bill followed as Alma was led, mostly by her daughters, from one room to another, but he declined to go see the girls' room upstairs, this left him alone with Jack on the main floor, Bobby having gone to ensure that Junior's ban from his room was enforced. Bill glanced at Jack. "So, uh, how you and Ennis come to be running this place together?"

Jack shrugged. "Old friends, met as teenagers, both got divorced right about the same time," he shrugged again.

Bill just nodded.

Everyone else came back downstairs. Only half looking at him, Jenny on her hip, Alma said to Jack, "Ennis said you painted the girls' room. The purple's nice. Be better with some pink, but you did okay."

Jack bowed his head to her. "Thank you."

After a few more exchanged words, Alma and Bill left, taking the girls back to Riverton. Ennis sighed and leaned heavily against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I never want to hafta do that again."

Jack patted Ennis's shoulder again. "She ain't just gonna disappear, bud."

Ennis sighed. "I know, but that, that was awkward if anythin' ever was."

Jack just patted more.

The next Wednesday was New Year's Eve. Ennis walked in and dropped a newspaper on Jack's lap. He gestured vaguely at the headline. "Aguirre ain't gonna be happy 'bout that; can't make no poor fool sleep with the dang sheep no more."

Jack looked at the headline and article beneath while Bobby leaned against him on the couch, slowly flipping through a Spider-Man comic book. The Occupational Safety and Health Act had been signed into law the day before. Jack snorted. "He ain't gonna be the only one not happy 'bout that."

Bobby tugged at Jack's shirt and pointed at a rather long speech bubble of Mary-Jane's. "Daddy, what's she sayin'?"

Jack read it for him.

Later that afternoon, right around the time when it becomes unclear if it's really still afternoon or if it's early evening, Ennis, being watched by the cows as he fixed part of the fence, was startled to hear a car coming down the driveway. He stood up as the shiny, new, yellow Chevrolet pulled to a stop and Lureen got out, unsteady on the gravel in her high-heals. Ennis cursed quietly. "What are you doing here?" he called, not bothering to mask his irritation.

She put her hands on her hips. "I am here to see my son." She stomped to the porch as determinedly as possible while stumbling every few steps.

Jack, who had been reading the directions on the back of a can of soup, jumped at the knock on the door. He felt as if he'd been hit by something very heavy that was moving very fast when he opened the door. "Lureen?"

She smiled big, making him uncomfortable in addition to bewildered. "Hey, Jack. I just thought I'd come see Bobby, and you, of course," she pushed her way gently past him and looked around the room.

Jacked looked out through the open door at Ennis, who gave him a _don't ask me_ look. He turned back to his ex-wife. "Well, uh, Bobby's not in the house right now..."

Lureen gave him a perplexed look. "Well, where is he?"

"The laundry room garage shed thing out back."

Lureen blinked and allowed him to lead her to the so-multipurpose-it-was-hard-to-define building. Bobby was on the floor, playing with Coalie and Sheriff, cackling joyfully. He looked around, "Mama!" and ran to hug her legs.

Oddly, and quite confusingly to the two men, Lureen's visit was overall going much more pleasantly than Alma's had been, despite its suddenness. Partway through the evening, she clapped her hands together. "Oh! I almost forgot, I brought Christmas presents. I know they're a little late, I hope you don't mind." She tottered out to her car and returned with three wrapped gifts.

The biggest of the three went to Bobby, the next to Jack, and the last, smallest gift to Ennis. Lureen shrugged as she handed it to him. "I didn't know what you'd like."

Ennis didn't say anything; he found the entire situation strange and uncomfortable.

Bobby tore the paper unceremoniously from his gift. It was a Hot Wheels set. He was thrilled.

Jack's was a shirt, a very nice, green shirt with his initials embroidered on the pocket. He blinked, surprised. "Wow, thank you..."

Ennis silently opened his rather generic, department store watch and set it on the nearest table to be ignored.

Once Bobby had gone to bed, Lureen insisted they needed some alcohol to ring in the new year with. It was soon revealed that she had begun to insist upon having at least one drink for any and every occasion. Even the lack of an occasion was an occasion. By midnight she was quite drunk. She leaned dramatically on Jack's shoulder, the hand not occupied by her drink slung loosely about his neck. "You know, Jack," she said somewhere between sternly and weepily, "this whole thing is such a mistake." She shook her head. "I never meant to push you away; I just didn't see..." She leaned her head against his shoulder. "We should get back together. Just come back and we can make everything better."

Jack gently but insistently disengaged from her, took her drink and set it down. "No, Lureen, we are over, no one's coming back."

She looked at him, a pathetic, pleading look in her eyes. "But, Jack..."

He shook his head. "No. Yer drunk, Lureen, yer being ridiculous."

She started crying silently except for the occasional hiccup.

Together, Jack and Ennis managed to convince her to go to bed in the room that, as far as she knew, was Jack's. Ennis stood in the middle of the living room, silent as the grave, and clearly pissed. Jack looked at him, upset that he was upset. "What's a matter, Ennis?"

Ennis huffed. "What she'd have to go an' show up for?"

Jack sighed and stepped closer. "I dunno, bud."

Ennis huffed again, but with less venom so it was almost a sigh. He mumbled so that Jack could just barely make out the words, "I wanted to spend tonight with you..."

Jack glanced over his shoulder to make sure the door to Lureen's room was shut; it was. He gave Ennis a quick kiss. "I know, I know." He touched Ennis's cheek gently and told him to go to bed.

Ennis slept in a bit the next morning. He was woken by some sort of altercation coming from the living room. Once dressed, he came down the short hall to find Jack and Lureen arguing. He sighed.

"I am taking my son back with me!"

"No you damn well aren't, woman; he's not a baby, he has school starting back next week!"

"Will you both shut the fuck up?" Ennis growled. There was immediate silence. "Jack is right, Bobby has school, he's staying here. Beyond that, work your shit out like adults. You two got divorced more calmly than this." He shuffled to the kitchen and made himself some coffee.

Lureen left just before noon. She couldn't have left any sooner for Ennis's taste. When her car was long gone, Ennis turned to Jack. "Why the hell did you marry that woman?"

"You know, I'm not sure."

Ennis snorted; there was a pause. "Oh, and, I think maybe, it wasn't your fault, after all."

He walked away, leaving Jack to figure out what he meant. It took a minute, but once he remembered, Jack had to laugh.


	8. Chapter 8

School started back for Bobby the next Monday, as did Ennis's job in town. Ennis had started working at a stable just on the edge of town that organized trail rides for the tourists and anyone else who didn't have the know-how to ride partway up the mountain by themselves. Though he was reluctant to admit it, he actually liked his job.

That Thursday while Ennis was still at work but Bobby was home from school, the phone rang. It rang several times, then Bobby realized his father was outside. He set down his Hot Wheels, climbed up on a chair, and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Is that you, Bobby?" asked the sweet, familiar voice of his teacher.

"Yes, ma'am, it is," he said proudly.

"Is your daddy home?"

"Uhhuh, he's outside."

"Can you go get him, please?"

"Yeah."

Bobby ran outside to fetch Jack, who picked up the phone while still pulling his gloves off. "Hello?"

"Hi, this is Bobby's teacher, Sandra Lois. I was wondering if you could come in and talk to me tomorrow afternoon."

Jack's brow furrowed. "I can, but is somethin' wrong?"

"Oh no, no, not really, I just need to talk to you."

"Alright then..."

When he hung up the phone not quite a minute later, Jack just paused and shook his head.

The next day, Jack drove into town the same time he always did to pick Bobby up from school, who rode into town with Ennis in the mornings. This afternoon, though, Jack parked and went in instead of picking Bobby up.

Ms. Lois smiled as Jack came in. "Afternoon, Mr. Twist."

He nodded and took off his hat. "Afternoon. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?"  
  
She gestured for Jack to sit, and he did. Out the sliding glass door Jack could see Bobby and a girl who looked to be at least part Native American building a snowman on the playground.

Ms. Lois leaned forward lightly on her desk. "Well, you see, I'm concerned Bobby can't read."

Jack looked at her like she was crazy. "He can read; I know he can."

Ms. Lois bit her lip. "As far as I can tell, he can't."

"He sits at home and reads comic books. And I know he ain't just looking at the pictures. He'll tell me bout what he's read and ask for help sometimes."

Ms. Lois shrugged and shook her head slightly. Jack sat back, knuckles to his lips, and thought a bit. "I think, maybe, he just can't read out loud so well."

She nodded a bit. "That would make sense I guess... Also, though, he writes his letters backwards a lot, sometimes even upside down, and he doesn't realize."

Jack paused. "My mama says I used to do that a bit, like mostly with little B's and D's and stuff like that."

"That's not uncommon, but Bobby'll write A's upside down or capital G's backward, he even wrote an H sideways once. I've never seen that. He's a smart boy, but there's somethin' goin' on here and I don't know what to do about it."

After another fairly long pause, Jack said, "Dyslexia?"

Ms. Lois blinked. "What?"

"I read somethin' about it." Jack sat up in his chair. "Like, kids with dyslexia, they don't read real well; they see the letters mixed up and stuff, write 'em like that, too."

"Oh, right, right! A friend a mine, another teacher, she was talking about that one time. Now you mention it, it fits. I think yer right, Bobby's dyslexic."

After leaving the school, Jack went with Bobby to Goodwill. Bobby skipped along happily, holding onto his father's belt loop. "Daddy, what're we here for?"

"To find somethin' to help you read an' write your letters."  
  
"But I _can_!" Bobby protested.

Jack nodded. "I know," he ruffled Bobby's hair, "But don't you wanna impress Ms. Lois with how good you can be?"

Bobby thought hard for a second. "Yeah..."

Jack chuckled and picked him up.

"So," Ennis said, tossing a carved wooden E from one hand to the other, "Bobby sees letters all mixed around when he reads, so yer gonna have him learn the alphabet backwards?"

Jack nodded. "That's the plan."

"You really think that'll help?"

"Well, it makes sense, don't it?"  
  
Ennis looked at him. "No."

Jack snatched the E from him and set it on the table. "Well it does to me."

"If you say so..." Ennis looked at the set of wood letters Jack had bought. "You realize there're some missing right?"

Jack sighed a bit. "Yeah, it was dirt cheap, but there's no M or X."

"I could make 'em." Ennis shrugged.

Jack looked at him and smiled slowly. "Would you?"

Ennis shrugged again, looking down. "Yeah, I mean, it's no trouble, really."

Jack grinned broadly. "Ennis, yer the best."

The only response Jack got was another shrug and a hint of a smile.

A few days later, Jack was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of SpaghettiOs and reading the newspaper when the loud clack of wood on wood made him jump. He looked up to see Ennis standing across from him, a small wooden X sitting on the table between them. Ennis nodded and left the room without a word. Jack smiled.

The next weekend, Jack stepped out of the bathroom, having just showered, to find a wooden M sitting in the middle of the hallway. He laughed softly and picked up the letter. He quietly let himself into "his" room, where Ennis was already in bed, set the M on top of his dresser, went to the edge of the bed, stooped, kissed Ennis on the cheek, and whispered. "Thanks, En."

Ennis, who was not quite asleep, reached up and pulled Jack into bed with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bobby being dyslexic is not my idea, Jack mentions it in passing in the movie. I am dyslexic and I have done things like written A's upside down. I also routinely misspell words I know full well how to spell, like "with." I had trouble reading out loud as a child and my second grade teacher was convinced I was illiterate. Learning the alphabet backward does help, by the way.


	9. Chapter 9

One evening in late January, Jack was lounging on the couch, talking more at than to Ennis as the fair-haired man went from room to room looking for something.

"Fella I bought 'em from must not a known; can't believe I only just noticed. _Really_ can't believe you didn't notice."

Ennis stopped for a moment and turned to look at Jack. "You realize I have no idea what yer talking about."

"One of our cows is pregnant!"

Ennis blinked, a bit taken aback. "Well, alright then."

Jack grinned and stretched, seeming rather like a tomcat. "What're you lookin' for, anyway?"

"My gloves."

"Haven't seen 'em."

"Course you haven't, sonofabitch..." Ennis grumbled, half joking, before going to hunt in "Jack's" room, having checked most everywhere else. After a few minutes of rummaging, he called, "Jack?"

Jack got up from the couch and walked into the room. "What?"

"What's this?" Ennis was holding a soft package wrapped neatly in brown paper and tied with twine.

Jack snatched it from him. "Nothing!" There was a pause. "It's nothin'."

Ennis gave him an extremely skeptical look.

Jack sighed and shifted his weight from foot to foot a few times. He slowly, carefully and rather hesitantly unwrapped the package then held the contents out to Ennis, who took it from him. It was two shirts, tucked carefully one inside the other and folded together. Ennis's brow furrowed as he looked from the shirts, to Jack, and back a few times. "Jack...?"

Jack shrugged, looking at the floor; he reached out and tugged out the right sleeves of the folded shirts. The sleeve of the blue outer shirt was crusted with dried blood, blood Ennis knew was his own.

Jack gently touched the collar of the light plaid inner shirt. "I stole it from your stuff when we got down from the mountain." He shrugged and hesitated with his next words. "That – that summer meant a lot to me; I wanted something a yours case we never saw each other again. I didn't wanna forget..."

Ennis studied Jack for a moment then pulled him into a tight embrace. Jack tucked his face against Ennis's neck, feeling foolish for being on the verge of tears. Ennis pet Jack's hair; he sighed. "Jack, I swear..."

Ennis shook his head and nuzzled his face into Jack's hair. They stood like that for a while, rocking gently back and forth. Jack took a deep breath and looked up into Ennis's face, blue eyes meeting brown with a soft, familiar spark. Ennis ran his thumb along Jack's jaw. "You got any more secrets, darlin'?"

Jack shook his head and whispered, "None that you wanna hear."

Ennis sat them both on the edge of the bed. "How about ones I don't wanna hear?"

"You tend to be unreasonable about stuff like that."

"Jack–"

"It's the truth."

Ennis sighed. "Yer not wrong, I guess..."

Jack took a deep breath and picked at a loose thread on one of the shirts in his lap. "Promise to keep your head and at least let me explain myself and I'll tell ya."

Ennis nodded. "I promise."

Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, you know about Randal. He's the husband of an old sorority sister of Lureen's." He shrugged. "Met through our wives and, well," he shrugged again and took a breath. "I've also taken a couple trips down to Mexico." Jack saw Ennis's eye's flash. "Now you wait just a second. I know what yer thinking, and you ain't wrong, but, just, listen before you get all bent outa shape. I'm not like you, the handful a times we'd meet up each year wasn't enough for me. I'd miss you so bad I'da done anything to see you. I had to do somethin' or I'da gone crazy, Ennis, and them boys down in Mexico are more than willing if you've got the cash. I ain't proud of it, but it's been done and can't be undone and you ain't within your rights to be too pissed at me to need something I was only getting' once in a blue moon."

Ennis looked back at him, speechless, huffed, and mumbled something Jack couldn't quite catch. Jack touched Ennis's cheek gently. "I am sorry, En, but, like I said, it's done and I can't undo it."

Ennis huffed again. Jack sighed, torn between feeling bad and being irritated. "You asked me to tell you."

"I don't think I wanna know anymore."

Jack leaned lightly on Ennis. "Not really anymore to know 'less you wanna hear 'bout every girlfriend I had growin' up."

Ennis snorted, half amused. "Maybe some other time."

Jack looked at him sideways. "How 'bout you; you got any secrets?"

"Only one I really got you actually already know and it would make you feel like a bastard if I told you."

"And since when do have anythin' against making me feel like a bastard?"

Ennis looked at Jack. "You and Alma are the only people I have ever slept with."

There was a pause. Jack felt as if he'd swallowed ice – and then been punched in the stomach. "I knew that?"

Ennis nodded. "I pretty much told you I hadn't done nothin' before that summer."

"Alright, I do feel like a bastard. I really feel like a bastard."

"You are a bastard."

Jack hugged Ennis tight. "I am an idiot." There was a beat of silence and Jack pulled away. "Honestly, yer an idiot too, though."

There was another, longer silence. Ennis made a sound somewhere between a huff and a sigh. "So we're both idiots."

"Yup."

"But yer a layabout."

"Um, well, I _was_."

"That'd better stay past-tense."

Jack kissed Ennis cheek. "Got no reason for it not to, now."

Ennis kissed him back. "Good. I'm still pissed, but good."

Jack bit Ennis's lip lightly. "And you still can't find your gloves."

"Damnit! I forgot about that!"

Jack laughed. Ennis glared. "Don't you laugh, I'm still mad at you."

Jack laughed more.


	10. Chapter 10

Jack came in from outside, his arms full of half-grown puppy, and heard the phone ringing. He cursed, kicked the door shut behind him, set the dogs on their feet, and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

Their phone only rang once every few days or so, only a handful of people – their ex-wives, Jack's parents, Bobby's school – had the number, and calls had a tendency to come in at really inconvenient times.

"Hey, Jack." It was Ennis.

Jack paused, Ennis had never called from work before. "Hey..."

"How much money we got left?"

"Why?"

Ennis hesitated a moment. "I wanna buy a horse."

"You want to what?" Jack shooed Sheriff gently with his foot.

"Micheal got a bunch of horses from a ranch a few towns over that went under. One of 'em no good to have beginners ridin', just too much spirit, but not a bad horse. I figured maybe..." He trailed off.

Jack sighed. "I need to go get Bobby soon anyway; I'll come down, we can talk."

"Alright. See you."

They hung up.

It turned out that Bobby's part-Native American friend from school was Ennis's boss Micheal's daughter, Amy, so the kids got to play together under the watchful eye of Micheal's Cherokee wife while the men talked business.

"Alright," Jack said. "Let's see this horse."

Micheal talked as he, Jack, and Ennis walked down the stable. "I got all these horses from a place out near Bosler that's goin' under, so I got 'em pretty cheep. I ain't gonna make you pay any more 'an I did."

Ennis nodded gratefully and Jack said, "Sure 'preciate that, Micheal."

The animal of interest was in the last stall on the left, eating happily, its long tail flicking every so often. The top half of the stall door was open and Jack leaned against the bottom, his hat tipped back a bit, eagle feather catching light from the already low sun streaming in from outside. The horse looked up at him for a moment, snorted, and returned its attention to its hay. It was a big, glossy, black stallion with a long mane and tail. Jack looked over his shoulder at Ennis and Micheal. "He a Friesian?"

Micheal gave a half-shrug. "Far as I can tell, sure seems to be."

Ennis nodded in agreement."

"And how much you asking, exacting?"

"'Bout hundred-sixty dollars."

Jack nodded slowly. "Alright... I'll go on home with Bobby; Ennis, you an. Me can talk when you get home later."

Ennis nodded. "Alright."

"Or you can go home now," Micheal said. "Me an' Zeke can finish out the day without you; it ain't exactly peek season."

Ennis nodded, half-smiled, and thanked Micheal; then he went out to his truck as Jack went to collect Bobby.

When Jack walked into the office, Bobby and Amy were laying on the floor playing checkers with Amy's mother, Robin, sitting in a chair nearby, reading. Jack ruffled Bobby's hair. "Time to head home, bud."

Bobby looked balefully at the half-finished checkers game he appeared to be losing. "Oh... 'Kay..."

Robin lay her book down on the small table next to her; its title was written in some elegant script Jack didn't recognize and and definitely was not in English. She leaned forward lightly on her elbows. "Say, Jack, why not let 'im stay the night? I'll take him and Amy to school tomorrow and they can play while you and Ennis talk money and what not."

Jack hesitated, hyper-aware of two pairs of five-year-old eyes trained on his face. He started to say something but Robin cut him off before he'd begun. "I have three kids, I can handle one more for a few hours."

After a pause, Jack nodded and smiled. "Alright." He stooped and kissed bobby on the cheek. "Be good, have fun."

Bobby grinned big. "Mkay, daddy!"

Ennis's truck was gone when Jack went back out to the parking lot, so he he got into his own truck and drove home. Having the luxury of being alone in the truck, he turned the radio on – loud.

Ennis was leaning on the fence, reaching out. petting the cow that he could now tell was pregnant. He heard Jack's truck growl up behind him and cut off. He straightened up and turned to see Jack hop to the ground. Ennis's eyes narrowed for a moment. "Where's Bobby?"

"Robin offered to let him stay the night so we can talk." Jack leaned casually on the fence next to Ennis. Ennis made a sound of acknowledgment. Jack rapped his knuckles on Ennis's elbow. "C'mon, let's go inside,"

Ennis snorted in amusement and headed to the house, Jack trotting ahead of him like some overgrown Jack Russel Terrier. Ennis was chuckling by the time he made it through the door. Jack gave him a half-smiling look. "What?"  
  
Ennis shook his head. "Just thinkin' you remind me of a Jack Russel Terrier."

"Now that is funny." Jack laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. "Maybe in a past life."

Ennis sat heavily on the couch. "You believe in that kind a stuff?"

"Oh, I don't know." Jack sat next to Ennis and leaned against him. "It's fun to think about sometimes though. I probably woulda been a dog once. Reckon we both were horses at some point."

"Bet you were a paint."

Jack rolled his eyes. "You were some big, stubborn, stall-aggressive cremello with a bad kicking habit."

"Oh, was I?"

Jack nodded. "You most certainly were. Anyway, since we're talkin' 'bout horses now regardless, this Friesian."

"Yeah?"

"It would be nice to have a horse, useful too, 'specially since Friesians are light draft horses."

Ennis nodded. "Mhm. But can we afford it?"

Jack sighed and leaned his head back. "I guess I have got myself set up as the one of us who deals with money, haven't I?"

"With your 'I have this crazy dream' fund, you have."

Jack smirked. "It ain't that crazy. But, yeah, we can afford it, barely."

"Barely?"

"Barely."

"How barely."

"Barely barely."

"Jack, that ain't an answer."

"Alright, barely as in," he paused to search for an analogy, "how likely either of us to actually try and cook anything on any given night."

Ennis whistled. "That ain't much."

"No, it ain't, but listen, on the part of the property that runs up the mountain a bit there's a bunch of trees that must've been downed in some storm a good while back."

"Are you suggesting we sell firewood?"

Jack ignored the semi-incredulous look Ennis was giving him. "I am."

"That's what I did for gas money when I was fourteen."

Jack huffed, slightly irritated by Ennis's near-constant pessimism. "There's s'posed to be another cold snap and snow coming and we got some six, seven dry trees _on our property_."

Ennis sighed.

"You want the damn horse?"

"Well, yes –"

"Then we're selling dead trees."

"Fine, fine." Ennis huffed in irritation and Jack rolled his eyes, just as irritated.

Jack got up, went to the kitchen, and came back with two beers, one of which he handed to Ennis. "Anyway, also, Micheal got those horses from a ranch that's goin' under, yeah?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Well, they're gonna be getting rid of more than horses. Livestock, equipment, stuff we sure as hell could use to have."

"Did you not hear yourself say we can barely afford the _horse_?"

"No, I did, but horses in general are expensive –"

"And that other stuff ain't?"

"It depends on the stuff." Jack propped one ankle on the other knee, set down his beer, and leaned against the arm of the couch. "With equipment, if it's busted, half-busted, or seems busted, it's suddenly dirt cheep, and if it ain't too bad off, I can fix it. It's more up in the air when it comes to animals."

"I dunno, Jack. Ya ask me, either we can afford this stuff or we can't. And it's soundin' a whole lot like we can't, so just give it up."

"Can you try to not be convinced for just one damn moment that nothin' in the whole fuckin' world is ever gonna go right for either a us?"

There was a silence. Jack took a deep breath and looked straight at Ennis. "We can go ahead and buy the horse, we already have the room and we can afford it. Things might be a bit tight for a little while, but we can make the money back. It won't take long. Then we can look into getting things for the ranch. Alright?"

Ennis closed his eyes and let a long breath out through his nose. "Alright."

Jack stood again and gestured at Ennis's beer. "Drink. It tends to improve your mood."

A little while later, both Jack and Ennis were sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, leaning back against the front of the couch, the remnants of sandwiches on plates on the floor nearby. It had gotten dark outside and the fire cast a warm glow over the room, tinting everything orange and throwing dancing shadows on the wall. Ennis had one arm around Jack's waist, his thumb hooked through one of Jack's belt loops. Jack himself was leaning against Ennis's shoulder, fiddling with a tiny tear in the knee of Ennis's jeans. "So, tomorrow you gonna tell Micheal we'll take the horse?"

"Mhm." Ennis nodded and leaned his head against Jack's.

"It's Wednesday, right?"

"Uhhuh."

"'Kay. I'll clean up the stable tomorrow and then we can bring 'im home Friday."

"Sounds good."

"Mm. Real pretty horse."

"Sure is... Nice to be alone."

Jack smiled and closed his eyes. "Mhm."

Ennis nuzzled his face into Jack's hair and paused. "You don't smell like smoke."

Jack shrugged. "Haven't smoked in 'bout a week."

"How come?"  
  
"I 'unno, Just haven't. Couldn't hurt to quit, anyway."

Ennis made a noncommittal sound.

"I'm serious."

"Shut up," Ennis mumbled and kissed Jack, who smirked and kissed back, his hand instinctively moving to clutch at Ennis's shirt.

As his shirt was pushed down over his shoulders, Jack murmured softly, "I love you."

Ennis kissed his neck. "I know."

It sure was nice to be alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're not familiar with Friesian horses, I highly suggest looking them up, they are gorgeous.


	11. Chapter 11

Friday afternoon when Jack picked Bobby up from school, the trailer was hitched to the back of his truck.

Standing by the schoolyard fence with his classmates, Bobby smiled a bit smugly. "Told y'all I was getting a horse."

Amy rolled her eyes and carefully removed her cherry lollipop from her mouth. "Yer gettin' it from _my_ daddy."

A little blond boy gave her a dismissive look. "It don't matter _where_ he's gettin' it from, he's gettin' a horse."

Amy crossed her arms, lollipop irritatedly back in her mouth, and grumbled something about how she had lots of horses.

Bobby stuck out his tongue and ran over to his father's truck just as Robin pulled up in her purple International Harvester Scout.

At Micheal's stables, Zeke, the mostly competent teenaged ranchhand, gave Jack a dead serious. "That horse keeps trying to kill me, I'm tellin' you."

"He probably just don't like you."

Jack paid Micheal while Ennis, accompanied by Zeke, led/wrestled/bribed the Friesian stallion up into the trailer. When the gate rattled shut, Bobby, who had been watching from the bed of the truck clapped. Ennis smiled and nodded at Bobby.

Robin's two sons, twins Tsali and Will, got home from middle school, laughing, smiling with a friendly warmth at Jack, Ennis, and Bobby, and patting the Friesian through the bars of the trailer.

Bobby elected to ride home with Ennis, bouncing excitedly in his seat as they followed Jack with the trailer.

Once they had gotten back to the ranch, Jack led the now-slightly-more-cooperative horse to the stable he'd spent the previous day making usable. After some settling the stallion was perfectly happy to stand there eating, ignoring the rest of the world, so the two men and Bobby went in to have dinner. Bobby took a big bite of his grilled cheese and bacon sandwich. "Our horse needs a name."

Einnis's chewing slowed thoughtfully. "Yeah, he does."

There was a beat of silence. Jack shrugged. "How 'bout one of our middle names?"

Bobby shook his head. "Jonathan is not a horse name."

"What about my middle name, Carter?"

Bobby just shook his head more.

"Well, alright then. Ennis?"

"Don't got one."

Jack gave him a questioning look. "Really?"

Ennis shrugged. Another short silence passed and Ennis took a sip of his beer. "How about Nero?"

Jack looked slightly confused. "The Roman guy?"

Bobby looked quite confused. "Who?"

Ennis half shrugged. "Yeah, he was emperor or king or somethin' a most of Europe a real long time ago. Anyway, his name means black."

"Well, I like that." Jack looked to Bobby for approval.

Bobby grinned and nodded. "Our horse is Nero!"

Jack smiled and ruffled his son's hair.

A while later, after dinner, Jack carried a dozing Bobby upstairs and tucked him into bed then came back down to fall into bed himself. Ennis came to bed shortly afterward, his hair damp from showering. He grumbled something irritably about Jack having been right and it was getting cold again.

Jack wrapped one arm across Ennis's chest and nuzzled his face into the other man's soft blond curls. "I'm glad for cold weather." He kissed Ennis's neck. "If it weren't for cold weather, your damn pride never woulda let you sleep with me."

Ennis made a half irritated sound. "Shut up."

Jack chuckled. "Oh, c'mon, cowboy. You know I'm kiddin' you. I ain't wrong, but I ain't real serious."

Ennis snorted. He knew Jack was right, but he didn't feel like admitting it. Actually, he just didn't want to talk about the more intimate parts of their secret at all. Jack's hand was resting on Ennis's shoulder, Ennis laced their calloused fingers. "Just go to sleep, darlin'."

The next morning after breakfast, Ennis saddled Nero and rode the stallion around the fenced field nearest the house. Jack leaned against the fence with Bobby, watching. After a while, he called to Ennis, "Get off, let me have a go."

Ennis rode up by the fence and dismounted. Jack hopped over the fence, swung himself up into the saddle, and proceeded to thoroughly show off. Bobby cheered while Ennis shook his head and laughed. No one was ever going to get the rodeo out of Jack.

Later, the two men cut up a couple of the downed trees Jack had found, piled the wood near the house, and propped a crude, hand-painted sign at the road end of the driveway. As they got into Ennis's truck to head back to the house, Jack said, "You're right, it's a real good horse."

"I know."

Jack smacked his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finding myself disinclined to refer to Jack and Ennis as "lovers" but at the same time that seems to be the most fitting description. I don't know, what do guys think?


	12. Chapter 12

The first week of February blew in blustery and cold with scattered snow; the firewood Jack and Ennis had gotten off their land sold fast. On Wednesday, Jack's mother called, asking if she and his father could visit that weekend. Naturally, he said yes.

Ennis watched the beat up, old, dark green truck rattling down the drive that Friday from a living room window. "Jack, ain't that your truck?"

Jack peered out the window. "No, it was mine for a while, but it's really my dad's." He stepped out onto the porch as the truck creaked to a halt, then he walked forward and helped his mother down.

"Hello, Jack!" She kissed his cheek. "How're you, honey?"

"I'm good, Mama." He smiled and led her inside, his father following behind looking rather sour and bored.

John almost immediately ensconced himself on the couch with the paper. Sue, Bobby on her hip, rolled her eyes. "Jack, Ennis, care to show me around?"

Ennis nodded, having already decided it was in his best interests to just go with the flow. Jack smiled warmly. "Sure, Mama. Oh, Daddy, we got a horse."  
That actually captured John's interest and he tagged along for the tour of the ranch, but he left the tour of the house to his wife. After his girls' room, Ennis deserted too. Sue was quite impressed with the house – until she got to the kitchen.

Examining the contents of the fridge and cabinets, she tutted disapprovingly. "It's obvious that you boys are not feeding my grandson properly." She paused and added, "Or yourselves for that matter."

"I don't think we're doin' _that_ bad, Mama."

Sue let the fridge door swing open revealing three eggs, a partial carton of milk, some cheese, butter, mayonnaise, and beer. "You have this, half a loaf of bread, cereal, and canned soup." She folded her arms, strode out of the kitchen, threw on her coat, and shouldered her handbag. "C'mon, Jack, we're goin' grocery shopping."

"Right now?" he asked incredulously, having followed her out of the kitchen.

"Yes, right now, when else? C'mon, I need you to drive."

"Mama!"

She gave him a narrow-eyed look. "I am serious, get your keys. An' yer coat, can't have you freezin'."

Jack lowered his voice. "Mama, I don't know how gooda an idea it is to leave Daddy and Ennis here by themselves together."

She waved him off. "Oh, they'll be fine; they got two dogs, a five-year-old, an' a horse to occupy them. And that little goat."

"Mama, really—"

"Jack." She gave him a mom look.

He picked up his keys; she smiled.

After they'd ridden in silence a couple minutes, Sue said, "You sure do seem happier now than you have in a good long time."

He smiled, glanced at his mother, and shrugged. "Yeah, well, you know, I did always wanna run a ranch."

She nodded. "Yeah, I know. Also, I think it's good for you to be away from Lureen. I never said nothin' but I didn't ever think she was the one for you."

Jack sighed. "I dunno, Mama..." He trailed off and shook his head.

"I understand, honey." She patted his shoulder softly. "And now yer runnin' a ranch like you wannid; an' with your best friend too."

Jack shifted his hands on the steering-wheel. "Yeah."

Sue folded up the end of one sleeve neatly. "The two a you must be mighty close to do what yer doin' an' actually get anything done. Lot a folks'd do nothin' but argue."

Jack shrugged. "We do argue, Mama; we argue plenty."

"Not all the time though."

"Well, no..."

Sue smiled slightly. "No." She looked up at Jack's face. "I'd bet he's part a why yer happy here."

Jack shrugged again but didn't say anything. He could feel his mother's eyes on him.

"Jack."

"Hm?"

"How are things with the two a you?"

Jack glanced over at his mother. "How ya mean?"

She half rolled her eyes, settled her shoulders, and looked straight at her son. "Jack, I know." She said it gently but firmly.

He swallowed. "Whadaya know?"

"I _know._ About you 'n Ennis."

Jack saw his knuckles tighten on the steering-wheel. "What're you talkin' about, Mama?"

She huffed softly. "I wasn't born yesterday, Jack. I can put two 'n two 'n three together an' get seven. An' you ain't no better at lyin' to me than you were when you _were_ seven."

He looked away from the road at her for a long moment. "What? I mean, how d'you –"

"Son, you spent the last half dozen summers sayin' you was gonna get yer buddy Ennis to come fix up the old place. Now that ain't never happened, but this past summer comes around and you an' he end up getting' divorced right 'round the same time, I mean _right_ round the same time. An' now the two a you 're runnin' a ranch together, sharin' a house. You really gonna tell me that's all coincidence?"

Jack thought he was shaking. "Well, could be..."

"Really? And does Ennis obsessively make his bed but not dust or is that second bedroom for show?"

Jack could feel a slight flush rising in his face at odds with the fact that he was blanching. Hardly believing he was admitting it, he said, "It ain't all coincidence."

"I know it ain't. And it's fine by me. I do not understand it, but I don't have to, really."

Jack shook his head; they were in town now. "I can't believe you know."

"I know plenty a things about you you don't think I know that you wish I didn't know."

He paused. "Like what?"

"You don't wanna know."

"Alright..." Jack hesitated, terrified of the answer to the question he was about to ask. "Does Daddy know?"

Sue almost laughed. "Oh, no, he ain't got a clue. He ain't a people person, you know that. Man's oblivious."

Jack let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I don't think I wanna know how he'd react."

Sue pressed her lips together and rubbed her son's shoulder. "I for one am just glad you're happy and where you can take care a yourself an' Bobby."

"Thanks, Mama."

And I sure don't need details but I would 'preciate some explanation as to how this all turned out like it is."

Jack turned into the parking lot of the grocery store. "Maybe on the ride back."

"Alright. Now, though, we need to fix the state of your kitchen."

Jack rolled his eyes as he stepped down out of the truck. "Yes, Mama."

Once she was in the store with a cart, her purse over her shoulder, Sue Twist was a woman on a mission and her son could tell. "Now, Mama, neither me or Ennis can cook worth much a anything."

She put one hand on her hip, shook her head and headed to the dairy section. "Well, what _can_ you cook?"

Jack had to think a moment. "Eggs, bacon, grilled cheese, most anything in a can... Oh, and I can bake cookies."

Sue gave her son an almost horrified look. "Didn't you ever pay attention to nothin' I showed you when you 're little?"

Jack held his hands up defensively. "I _can_ bake cookies."

Sue shook her head, sighed, and put a gallon of milk in the cart. "We'll just have to work with what you can do. Don't ever run outa milk; you got a growin' boy in the house."

"Yes, Mama." Jack knew he'd be saying those two words a lot over the next two or three hours.

Sue spent the entire trip explaining to Jack exactly why he did or did not need various things.

In the meat section:

"You gotta have meat and 'til you can get your own off your ranch you gotta buy it." She shrugged. "Or I guess you could hunt but we're buyin' some now. Keep it in the freezer and it'll stay good. Pork chops, cube steak, hotdogs you can just do up in a pan. I figure you can handle that much."

"Yeah, just like bacon."

She nodded. "Right, like bacon."

And the produce section:

"Don't you ever not have fruit and vegetables at home. Bobby needs 'em to grow an' you all need 'em to stay healthy. Those trees on your ranch are apple trees, aren't they? The ones just to the other side of that first pasture?"

Jack nodded. "Mhm, those are all apple trees over there."

"Well, yer all set for fruit come next autumn."

A little while later, Sue paused at the end of the canned goods isle. She sighed a bit. "I s'pose we oughta get you some canned things," she turned down the isle. "Soup, um, those spaghetti ring things, peaches, corn, peas, beans –"

"No beans."

Sue gave her son a look. "Whadaya mean no beans?"

Jack shook his head. "Just no beans, trust me, Mama, it's kinda a long story."

She nodded. "Alright, but I'm goin'a wanna hear this story."

"Later, Mama."

In the end, they got a hundred and twenty dollars worth of groceries, which sue insisted on paying for. As he loaded the bags from two overfull shopping carts into the back of his truck, Jack said, "You really didn't need to do that, Mama. I mean, I sure appreciate it, but you really didn't have to."

"Oh, yes, I did." Sue elbowed her son lightly in the ribs. "It's part a my job to make sure yer eatin' right."

Jack smiled and chuckled softly. "Then, thank you."

"No problem, sweetheart." She opened the door of the truck and put one foot up. "C'mon, let's go make sure your daddy an' Ennis ain't tryin'a kill each other."

"I thought you said they'd be fine." Jack got in the truck as his mother got the rest of the way in.

"Well, 'course I did. You wouldn'ta come otherwise."

Jack shot her a look.

"Oh, I'm kiddin'. And we are now on the way back, so you owe me some explainin'."

Jack sighed and shifted his grip on the steering-wheel, then turned out onto the road. There was a short silence. Sue settled back in her seat. "You can start with why you didn't wanna buy any beans, if you like."

Jack half shrugged and let out a single half-cold laugh. "They're kinda the same story, really." He saw his mother raise one eyebrow, sighed again and took a deep breath. "Summer a '62 I went and worked with that sheep operation up on the mountain; you know that. And you know I went on ahead an' did it the next summer 'cause it paid well enough and nothin' else was fallin' to hand."

Sue nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, summer a '63, Ennis was workin' with me. He hardly said a word for the first two weeks, other than cussin', but, I mean, it was nice to have somebody there who wasn't that good for nothin' Irish son of a bitch from the year before."

"Jack..."

"I'm sorry, but that kid was useless. Anyway, me an' Ennis, we didn't agree on much a anythin' 'cept that our boss was a right bastard. And that, after about a month, we were sick of beans 'cause that's what we'd had for every meal since the summer started." He took another breath as his mother laughed softly then began again. "We started huntin' together just to have somethin' else to eat." He smiled at the memory. "By late June we were best friends, no doubt. Then, I mean, there was somethin' more there already, I guess, but, even in June it's _cold_ up there and we were both drunk." He shook his head. "I don't even really know. Or, I know _what_ happened, just not..." he shrugged. "After that, the rest of the summer was different; pretty much ignored the poor sheep. We never said a word about it; what could we a said? Then the snows moved in in august an' there was nothin' to do but pack up, come down, and drive home in opposite directions." Jack swallowed past a lump in his throat and made himself loosen his grip on the wheel. "Four years later, we were both married with kids an' jobs an' hadn't seen hide nor hair a the other since Brokeback. I heard he was in Riverton, we met up, picked up more or less where we left off. Get together once in a while, every few months or so, way out where nobody'd find us, up in the mountains and what not. That went on 'til last summer."

Sue nodded, her lips pressed lightly together. "Can I ask what changed last summer?" she said gently.

Jack smiled just a bit. "Ennis finally managed to face up to the fact that he'd fallen in love with a man."

"You don't seem to have had much a problem with that yerself."

"No, not really. Never seemed wrong to me," he shrugged, "never seemed unnatural. After all, you always taught me that Jesus was all about lovin' yer fellow man an' all that. I admit to not always payin' attention, but far as I know he never put any conditions on how you oughta go about doin' that. Ennis's father, though, he made damn sure to impress upon Ennis that it ain't right, so that sure as hell hasn't helped." Jack cut the engine; they'd made it home. "And, Mama? Don't tell Ennis you know; he is guaranteed not to take it well."

Even though she knew Jack hadn't meant to be funny, Sue couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, I won't. But I most certainly will make him put groceries away."

Jack opened his door. " _That_ is just fine."

His mother laughed again.

Later that evening, after Jack's parents had gone to bed and Bobby had been sent to bed, Jack was lounging on the couch while Ennis stood by the window, watching a skinny fox trot across the edge of the yard.

"With Mama buying us all those groceries, not only are we back where we were 'fore buying Nero, if not better, our grocery bill for the next month or so is covered."

"Mm, that's good."

"Mhm." Jack stood, went to stand behind Ennis and wrapped his arms around him despite Ennis's attempts to shy away. "For Christ's sake, En, everybody but us is asleep with the door closed."

Ennis mad a low, uncomfortable sound.

"Let's go outside."

Leaning against the fence outside next to Jack, Ennis lit a cigaret and looked up at the stars. After a moment of comfortable but very empty silence, Jack said softly, "Mama knows."

Ennis let out a breath of smoke. "Hm?"

"Mama knows. About us."

Ennis almost dropped his cigaret. He also almost choked. "She what?"

"Shhsh, shhsh," Jack put his hands on Ennis's elbows. "It's okay, she's not upset, or scared, anything like that, she doesn't care, it's okay."

Ennis glanced wide-eyed and disbelieving back at the house. "She knows? Did you tell her?"

Jack shook his head. "No, she knew without bein' told."

Ennis just stared at him. "How?"

"I don't even know." Jack let out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. "To quote, she put two 'n two 'n three together an' got seven. Basically, she figured it out." He shrugged. "My mama's always been good with people, readin' 'em. When I was little there was always girls an' women 'round the house comin' to her with their problems."

Ennis took a long pull on his cigaret, trying to let the news sink in. "An' your father?"

"Ain't got a clue. Good thing too."

"He'd react how I think he'd react, then?"

"Pretty much."

Ennis swallowed. "But your mama's fine with it?"

"Yes, she's fine with it."

Ennis shook his head, paused to say something, then gave up trying to string words together and shook his head more. Jack rubbed his shoulder in a comforting, familiar way. "I know, friend, believe me, I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, $120 in 1971 is about $270 today, so that is a lot of food.


	13. Chapter 13

Jack's parents left Sunday after lunch, Sue admonishing her son to take care of himself and Bobby, then turning to admonish Ennis in a whisper to take care of Jack.

The next two days went by as usual, but then Ennis took Wednesday off and he and Jack spent the day packing to head out to Bosler and the ranch that had formerly been home to their horse. Robin had kindly offered to take care of Bobby while they were gone. They left that evening.

The next day, during the late morning, Jack was leaning into the corner of his seat, singing along with the radio. Ennis, driving, wasn't sure if he was irritated or amused.

" _Trailers for sale or rent rooms to let, fifty cents. No phone, no pool, no pets~_ " he paused to read a road sign. "Ennis, you got folks in Signal, right?"

Ennis turned the radio down. "Yeah."

"Which one? There's gotta be, what, some four, five Signal, Wyomings."

Ennis snorted; Jack was right, there were two Signal Mountains alone. "Signal Hill."

"Well, there's one a them up by Lightning Flat but I doubt you mean that," he turned from the window to look at Ennis, "an' we're headin' right through the other one. Why don't we stop and visit?"

With a sigh Ennis said, "Jack, it's my brother who's in Signal. I know you know we don't get along."

"But he's still your family. And doesn't he have kids?"

"Well, yeah..."

"How long's it been since you seen them?"

Ennis thought a moment. "'Bout three, maybe four years."

"We oughta stop by so you can see them, at least. It's no good for kids to grow up not knowin' their family."

A mile later, Ennis turned off the highway onto the streets of Signal. K.E.'s house was near the middle of town. It was painted a soft green with white shutters and a big yard. A blond-framed, heart-shaped face appeared in one of the windows as the truck pulled up, vanished, then reappeared in the doorway. The slender woman to whom the face belonged came running down the driveway, smiling brightly, her shoes clicking on the concrete, as Ennis stepped out of the truck.

"Ennis!" She hugged him tightly.

Looking rather startled and confused, Ennis patted the woman's shoulder awkwardly. "Hey, Meg..."

She looked up at him as she loosed her hug. "Well, you are the last thing anybody expected, timing's great though." She paused, having noticed Jack walk around front of Ennis's truck. "Hm? Who's this?"

Ennis hesitated, unsure of what exactly to say. Jack held his hand out to the blond woman. "Jack Twist. I'm Ennis's friend and, as of recently, business partner of sorts."

The woman smiled and shook Jack's hand. "Well it is mighty nice to meet you, Jack. I'm Megan McNal, Ennis's sister." She turned back to Ennis. "Where on earth did you find such a nice fellow who can stand your company? Somewhere with horses I bet. Oh, never mind that." She hugged him again and clasped his hands. "What are you doin' here, little brother? I'm not sure when I last saw you!"

Ennis shrugged. "Headed to Bosler, were passin' by anyway, thought it'd be good to see K.E.'s kids."

"Me and my kids are stayin' here a while. Russel," she glanced at Jack and clarified, "my husband, is workin' on the house with his buddies helpin' out. We're realizin' that we ain't got quite enough room for three kids after all." Her brow furrowed and she smacked Ennis on the arm. "And what kind of a good for nothin' uncle are you? Haven't even met little Nicolas yet. I got a real sweet card from Alma back in May; you didn't even sign it."

Jack could tell she wasn't really upset with Ennis and couldn't keep himself from grinning. Megan was far from what Jack had expected from Ennis's family and he sure did like her.

A little dark-headed girl peaked out the front door. "Hey, Aunt Meg, Daddy wants to know who the devil you're talkin' to out here."

Meg put a hand on her waist and turned back toward the house. "Tell him I am talkin' to my brother."

"Isn't he your brother?" The girl seemed a bit confused.

Meg rolled her eyes good naturedly. "My other brother."

"Oh," the girl paused. "Okay. Hey Uncle Ennis." She slipped back inside.

"She is...?" Jack said questioningly to Ennis and Meg.

"Is that Anita?" Ennis looked at his sister.

She smiled. "Mhm, sure is." She looked at Jack. "K.E.'s youngest, she's a sweetheart. God, Ennis, you haven't seen her since she was a baby. Let's go inside."

In the living room, Anita was sitting on the couch with four other children, two boys and two girls, one of whom was holding a baby boy that must have been Nicolas. Meg took Nicolas from the strawberry-blond girl holding him. "Thank you, Catie."

Catie, who seemed to be about eleven, grinned and waved at Ennis. "Hey, Uncle Ennis."

Ennis nodded. Another girl with dark hair like Anita rolled her eyes, set aside her crocheting, and went to hug Ennis. Within a moment Catie, Anita, and the two boys joined the hug. Ennis honestly smiled. He picked up Anita and ruffled the hair of one of the boys. He looked at the older dark-haired girl who had her arms around his waist. "Hey, Eve"

Eve smiled.

From Meg's arms, red-headed little Nicolas grabbed at Jack's shirtsleeve. Jack smiled. "Hey there, little guy." He looked at Meg. "He's real cute."

Meg smiled. "Thank you. My other son, Avery, can't get enough of him. Avery is the blond one; I swear he looks just like Ennis did when he was little. K.E.'s boy, Andy, looks just like _he_ did." She laughed.

A voice sounded from a door that stood open to the rest of the house. "Ennis, you are here, I'm surprised."

Everyone in the room turned toward the dark-haired, dark-eyed man now standing in the doorway. Jack was struck by how much this man seemed like a Doberman.

Ennis shrugged and set Anita back on her feet. "Glad to see you too, K.E." He didn't seem particularly glad.

K.E. snorted, waded through the kids, and clapped his brother on the shoulder. "Yeah, been a while." Anita tugged on her father's beltloop and he picked her up. "What're you doin' here?"

"Visiting my family, or is that a problem?"

"No, not at all. Who's he?" K.E. Jerked his head at Jack.

"Friend a mine and business partner. Name's Jack."

A woman with black hair back in a french braid had come into the room while K.E. And Ennis were talking. She looked at Meg. "Were they always this...?"

"Passive-aggressive?" Meg laughed. "No. they used to actually beat each other bloody and blue. I got really good at relocating knuckles."

Every other adult in the room grimaced, as did some of the children. Meg shrugged. "Gave me a head start at becoming a nurse."

The black-haired woman rolled her eyes and shook her head, then held her hand out to Jack, smiling. "Hi, I'm Carletta, K.E.'s wife."

Jack smiled and shook her hand. "Hola Señora."

Carletta laughed. "Hola. Tu habla español?"

"Si."

K.E.'s face fell, Eve giggled, and Meg rolled her eyes. "Great, somebody else Lettie can talk to an' nobody understand."

Eve giggled more and said something to her mother in Spanish. Ennis and K.E. shared a rare look of fraternal commiseration.

Later, early that evening, Jack, who had spent much of the past few hours chatting with Lettie in Spanish or being told stories about Ennis by Meg, was dancing Eve around the room with her standing on his feet. Ennis was sitting on the couch with his nephews, showing them some sort of knot trick with a length of thick crocheting yarn. He looked up as Lettie came back into the room from helping put a fussy Nicolas to bed at least temporarily. "I notice you ain't got any ashtrays anywhere."

She gave him a look. "There is no smoking in this house. I make K.E. go outside; I'll make you go outside too."

Lettie continued to walk to the other side of the room and Andy leaned up to whisper in his uncle's ear. "She's serious; one time she threw all of Daddy's cigarets out in the rain."

During dinner, the conversation more or less dissolved into Ennis and K.E. telling stories on each other. "This was when I was about nine so you must've been six, Ennis." K.E. leaned forward on one elbow and looked at Jack. "He took our daddy's tractor out, had a little joy ride, got it stuck in a ditch."

"No, I did not," Ennis broke in. "That was you. Said I did it, got me hit for it, but that was you."

Avery shot Andy a look and the dark-haired boy sank down in his seat.

"Naw, little brother, that was you."

Ennis glared at his brother. Meg rolled her eyes. "Let's vote. All who think K.E. took the tractor..."

Ennis, Meg, Avery, Catie, and, after a moment, Lettie and Jack, raised their hands.

"There we go," Meg said wiping her hands on her napkin, "some twenty-year-old argument closed. Congrats, Ennis, you're innocent."

K.E. shot her a venomous look.

Lettie herded all the kids off to bed while Meg, with volunteered assistance from Jack, cleared the plates away to the kitchen, made herself and Lettie some tea, and found something a bit stronger for the men. Once everyone was seated again, the conversation picked back up.

"You know what I wanna hear?" Jack said. "How it is that the two a you are blond," he look from Ennis and Meg to K.E. "an' yer not." There was a slight pause and he added, "And how it is that y'all have a Spanish last name an' the two a you are blond."

The two brothers looked to their sister; she laughed a bit and sipped her tea. "K.E. looks like our great-granddaddy Felipe. We got a picture of 'im from right around nineteen-hundred, it's at his wedding; looks _just like_ K.E. Our Daddy looked a lot like it too. Me an' Ennis look like like our mother, she was part Swedish, I think, if you go far enough back."

"This makes it rather funny to me that K.E.'s Spanish is pretty much limited to ordering beer." Lettie shot her husband a look.

Jack chuckled. "What's K.E. short for?"

"Kenneth Emerson," Ennis said without looking up from his drink.

"If you actually heard all that, I was in trouble." K.E. laughed once and emptied his glass. "I'm the only one of us with a middle name."

Meg looked at Jack. "Only 'cause our parents could not for the life of them agree on a first name. And by the way K.E. my middle mane is Del Mar."

"Only one who grew up with one then."

"Anyway, Jack," Lettie said, "how'd you learn Spanish?"

He shrugged. "Lived in Texas a few years. Seems like half of everybody down there speaks a little, you pick it up. Also, I was a salesman so it had its advantages. I went down to Mexico a couple times."

"Did your wife know about that? I been wonderin'." Ennis looked at Jack.

There was a pause. "She knew I was _going_ to Mexico..."

For a moment everybody just looked at jack then Meg broke the silence. "Did something happen in Mexico?"

"Long story that nobody here needs to hear."

"Did you cheat?" K.E. looked almost impressed. Lettie smacked his shoulder.

"No. Well, sort of, but no. I did not cheat on my wife in Mexico. If I had she woulda shot me..."

"And not a woman in the world woulda blamed her," Lettie said with a pointed, almost warning look at her husband.

When the conversation began to wain, Meg and Lettie got up to go wash the dishes.

"You ladies like some help?" Jack offered as K.E. and Ennis both stepped out for a smoke.

"Yeah, thanks," Meg grinned. "That's very kind a you."

While they washed dishes, Jack and the two women talked, Jack pointing out that K.E. didn't seem to be in the best of moods.

"Oh, he's always like that," Meg said.

Lettie shook her head, grinning. "Also, he hasn't been getting any."

"I don't think I need to know that," Jack said. Meg laughed and almost dropped a plate.

Lettie rolled her eyes. "No Sabe Que Soy embarozadae."

Jack paused. "De veras?"

"Asi es."

"Te felicito."

Lettie smiled. "Gracias."

"Wait, what's this?" Meg asked, hand on hip.

"Meg, you know," Lettie said. " _That_."

"Oh, right, that." Meg laughed softly.

"He really doesn't know?"

"No clue," the sisters-in-law said together.

A little bit later, Lettie went up to bed, leaving Jack and Meg to dry the dishes. "Say, Jack?" Meg asked a couple of minutes after Lettie had left. "You an' Ennis seem real good friends, reckon you probably know 'im better than anybody else now."

"Yeah, Jack said, unsure of the direction the conversation was taking. "Guess I probably do."

Meg leaned on the counter and looked at him sincerely. "You think he'll get remarried?"

Jack pause; it had never occurred to him that such a question would come up, but, now that one had, it seemed obvious that they would. It took him a moment to answer. "Naw... I don't think so." He shrugged. "He don't seem real interested in getting' with any a the women in town; don't pay 'em much mind."

He wasn't sure why but he didn't want to directly lie.

Meg nodded slowly and sighed. "Well, it's only been a few months a guess." She put the plate she'd been holding up in the cabinet then turned to face Jack. "I just don't like to think a him bein' by himself, lonely like. He spent enough a his life like that when he was a kid."

"Meg, he ain't lonely."

Meg looked up at him, clearly worried about her brother and wanting to hear what Jack was saying.

"I'm there all the time, so's my son. Ennis's girls are there part a the time. Ennis has got a job in town an' he's plenty good friends with his boss's family. He ain't lonely; he's 'bout as happy as I've ever seen him."

Meg smiled and looked down. "I'm glad a that."

Ennis and K.E. came in right as the dishes were finished and Nicolas started crying upstairs. Meg ran off to tend to her baby and K.E. looked at his brother. "So, you stayin' the night, or, what?"

Ennis looked at Jack then back at K.E. "Sure 'preciate the offer but I think we should head on a little further, get a motel later."

K.E. nodded. "Alright."

They said their goodbyes, then Jack and Ennis went back out to the truck. "Hey, Ennis, I'll drive."

"Naw, it's alright, I'm fine."

Jack rolled his eyes and got in the driver's seat anyway. Not long after they'd pulled out onto the highway, Ennis fell asleep against the door. He woke up sometime around midnight just as Jack was turning into the parking lot of a motel just off the highway; he yawned. Jack grinned. "Good timing, now I don't have to wake you up."

Ennis made a small sound but said nothing. He continued to not say anything as they checked in until they were settled into a room. "C'mere, you."

He pulled Jack into a hug and literally fell into bed with him. Jack chuckled and kissed Ennis's temple. "I like your family."

"Mm." Ennis leaned his head into Jack's neck. "Even K.E.?"

"Well... he's kinda an ass but, so're you, so..." He shrugged and Ennis snorted.

"We ain't even gonna change clothes, are we?"

Jack tightened his arms around Ennis. "Don't think so."

Ennis smacked the lamp til the light went out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who speaks Spanish, I am sorry for any mistakes I've made; my conversational Spanish is limited to asking where the bathroom is. I appreciate corrections.


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning, Jack and Ennis awoke, changed into less rumpled shirts, and continued on their way. They reached Bosler by noon. After stopping for lunch at a little diner in town, they headed out to the bankrupted ranch.

The owner, a rather round, though not fat, man, shook hands with Jack and Ennis in the dusty, weed-choked yard out front of his field house. "Plenty glad to have folks out here whenever; just wanna get as much money outa this crap as I can now. You fellas lookin' for anythin' in particular?"

"No, sir," Jack said cheerfully. "Just here to see what you got."

"Alright." The owner led them over to the barn that had become an all-purpose storehouse. "Now half a this stuff don't work," he warned Jack and Ennis as they sifted through the building's contents.

"Well," Jack said, "I'm sure we could haul some of the busted stuff off for you; save ya some time an' a trip." He met Ennis eye, silently telling him to go along.

The owner leaned on a rickety old table. "You don't have to do that, but I'd sure 'preciate it if ya did."

After going through everything in the barn, Jack stood haggling with the owner for a while. A little half-grown white and brown cat slunk out of a dark corner and wound its way around Ennis's legs, purring like a motor. Ennis half smiled to himself, bent down, and picked up the little cat. Jack finished his compromising and walked back over to Ennis, putting his wallet back in the inside pocket of his coat and grinning. "We're all set. Cute cat."

"You want the cat, too, you can have it," the owner called from across the yard. "My daughter would kill me if I just left the thing behind. You take it an' I don't have to worry about her wrath."

Ennis shrugged. "Can be good to have a cat around."

Jack smiled.

The gate of the trailer clanged shut, earning indignant clucking from the handful of chickens stacked in their crates along with various equipment and an old radio. The cat was stretched out on the dashboard in the cab of the truck, soaking up the winter sun. Jack shook hands with the owner again, then he and Ennis both climbed up in the truck and drove away. A few minutes down the road, Ennis asked, "You really think you can fix all that?"

Jack let out a single bark of laughter. "Hell no. Some of it, sure; the rest we can scrap, sell for parts, whatever." He scritched the cat behind the ears; it was curled up against his thigh. "'Sides, it ain't _all_ busted."

"Yeah."

The cat yawned.

They made it home a day later, Saturday afternoon. Zeke hopped over the fence to greet them, grinning broadly. "Hey, Ennis, Jack. You seem to of had a good trip," he said eying the contents of the trailer.

"Most a it don't work," Ennis grumbled.

"Then why –"

"I'ma fix what I can, scrap what I can't." Jack clapped Zeke on the shoulder. "Thanks for takin' care a things here."

"No problem." Zeke smiled then his smile faltered. "Though I swear that horse still hates me."

"And I swear its just you."

They both laughed.

Zeke headed on home while Jack and Ennis started unloading the trailer. After a while, Jack went to get Bobby from the Carsers' house, then came back.

After dinner and after Bobby was in bed, Jack sat on the floor with the old radio cracked open in front of him. Ennis sat next to him, watching.

"Oh, this ain't so bad." Jack carefully unwound and removed an old wire with cracked insulation. "Just needs a couple new wires and a few screws tightened."

A little while of poking around and quiet cursing later, Jack smiled, put everything back together, shoved the radio over to the wall, plugged it in, and turned it on. A bit of knob twiddling found a clear station.

Ennis grinned softly. "Good job."

Jack stood. "Thanks." He went over to Ennis where he was leaning on the back of the couch, took both of Ennis's hands in his own, and tugged him fully onto his feet. "C'mere. Dance with me."

"Jack, no..." Ennis halfheartedly removed his hands from Jack's.

"C'mon." Jack smiled imploringly and placed one hand on Ennis's neck, rubbing gently with his thumb.

"I don't dance."

"Junior says you do."

Ennis groaned slightly and walked a few steps away. "Yeah, alright, I do, but I mean."

Knowing what was probably at least half of what was bothering Ennis, Jack rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and said, "You can lead."

Ennis turned to see Jack smirking slightly. Jack snorted at the look Ennis was giving him and stepped forward. "Somebody's got to an' I figure it ain't like you to be inclined to follow. 'Sides," he leaned forward and whispered in Ennis's ear, "I ain't so sure you could dance backwards without falling on yer ass."

Ennis smacked him on the shoulder. Jack laughed. Ennis snorted, smiling despite himself, and put his hands on Jack to dance. Jack smiled softly and leaned his head on Ennis's shoulder as they danced. After a minute, Jack said, "I know this song."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He was quiet again a moment. "Reminds me a us a bit."

"Hm?"

Jack closed his eyes and murmured the words to the song along with the radio. "Lean on me, let our hearts beat in time; feel strength from the hands that have held you so long. Who cares where we go on this rutted old road n a world that may say that we're wrong."

Ennis said nothing as the song ended, then, "That is the sappiest thing I have heard in quite a while."

He kissed Jack. They stood awhile, foreheads together, eyes closed, then they turned off the radio and turned into bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song is A Love That Will Never Grow Old, originally released in 2005 it is technically anachronistic to use in a story set in the 70s, but, as it was written for the movie, I think it's okay. In case anyone's interested, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUp5sq5Ror0


	15. Chapter 15

Jack was already awake when Ennis opened his eyes the next morning, but he hadn't gotten up. He was laying on his back staring at the ceiling. Ennis rolled halfway over to rub Jack's arm. "You alright, Darlin?"

"Yeah, fine, but," he turned his head & smiled at Ennis, "I just realized it's Valentine's day."

Ennis paused, counting dates in his head. "You're right." He smiled & kissed Jack; Jack kissed him back, reaching up to curl his fingers in Ennis's hair.

After a bit, they broke apart, both smiling. Jack kissed Ennis's forehead. "Breakfast."

They got up, dressed, and went to the kitchen. Jack made eggs while Ennis made coffee. After they ate, as Bobby was still asleep and there was no one else around, they walked out to the stables hand in hand to start the day's work.

That evening, after Bobby had gone to bed, Ennis and Jack tumbled into bed together, having been roughhousing in their room. Hands roaming from neck to hair to arm to hip, they kissed. Jack pulled Ennis's undershirt up over his head and ran a hand over his chest.

Later, with the past-full moon hanging just over the dip in the mountain's peak, the two men lay in one another's arms, Ennis's head resting on Jack's shoulder. "You know I love you," he said quiet & sleepy.

"Course I do." Jack pressed his cheek to Ennis's hair. "An' I love you. So much, so much." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short little Valentines chapter, originally posted on Valentine's Day.


	16. Chapter 16

The next weekend, Jack drove into the small upscale neighborhood in Brokeback Village to deliver firewood; Bobby went with him. The lady of the house, curly haired and fair, was standing on the front porch when Jack pulled up. She waved as he stepped out. "Thank you for doing this, we don't have a truck or anything so we couldn't get it ourselves."

Jack smiled. "It's no problem, ma'am. I just appreciate the business." He helped Bobby out of the truck.

The lady, Mrs. Barnard, showed Jack and Bobby where the firewood needed to go in a rack at one end of the porch.

After a couple trips toting wood, Bobby paused to look at a cabinet sitting somewhat abandoned just past the wood rack. "Ma'am, what's this?"

Mrs. Barnard smiled gently. "It's an old television, sweetheart."

Bobby's eyes went wide and shiny as he looked up at her. "Could I have it?"

"Bobby," Jack said, "you can't just ask to have other people's things."

"But, if she wanted to keep it, it wouldn't be out here. _And_ , I can pay for it." Bobby proudly produced a handful of coins from his jeans pocket.

Jack found himself rather at a loss for words. Mrs. Barnard laughed softly and put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "My mother-in-law got us a new one for Christmas and this one seems to have some kind of wiring issue or some such. As far as I care," she shrugged, "if you can get it out of here, you can have it."

Jack thought for a moment. "Bobby, give Mrs. Barnard your money. Ma'am, is your husband home?"

"No, but my son is. He's fourteen."

"Could you have him help me get this into my truck?"

When Jack got home, Ennis was mending part of a fence not far from the house. Jack helped Bobby down and the little boy ran over to the porch where Sheriff was sitting to play with the dog.

"Hey, Ennis, come over here," Jack called.

"Hang on!" Ennis finished what he was doing then walked over, boots crunching on dry, frozen grass. "What? "

"Help me get this thing inside." Jack opened the tailgate of his truck.

"Did you buy a television?" Ennis asked, disbelieving.

"No, Bobby did—for sixty three cents."

"You're kidding..."

Jack shook his head. "I am not. I'll explain in a minute. Right now just help me."

It took Jack the next three days to fix the television wiring problem—as he told Ennis, TVs are complicated and can be dangerous. Then it took another two days for either Jack or Ennis to get around to putting an antenna on the roof. When Jack picked him up from school Thursday, Bobby ran to his daddy's truck and immediately asked, "Does the TV work yet?"

Jack chuckled and ruffled his son's hair. "Yup, it does."

Bobby shouted in excitement.

Bobby spent that afternoon, the next afternoon, and the better part of the weekend laying on the floor in front of the television. He also was allowed to watch some TV when he got home from school every day over the next week. That Saturday, sitting on the floor watching a cartoon, Bobby grabbed Ennis by the pants leg as he walked by. "Ennis, look! Spider-man is on the TV!" He seemed thrilled.

Ennis looked and, sure enough, a Spider-man cartoon was on. "Yeah, yeah he is." He ruffled Bobby's hair. "That's cool."

Bobby grinned. "Mmhmm." He turned back to his show.

Later that night, Jack and Ennis were sitting on the couch together, Jack leaning on Ennis's chest. "'M glad I was able to fix the TV."

"Thought you could fix anything," Ennis teased gently.

"Almost anything. But I'd never tried anything on a TV and they are damn complicated." He sighed. "Bobby would have been crushed if I couldn't gt it working."

"Yeah, but you did."

"Yeah, I did." Jack smiled and twisted to kiss Ennis on the cheek.

"You're pretty incredible, darlin'." Ennis kissed Jack on the mouth.

At the sound of footsteps from upstairs, they broke apart. By the time Bobby reached the bottom of the stairs there was no sign the two men had been doing anything worth hiding.

There were advantages to having an old creaky house.

"Daddy, I'm hungry."

Jack got up, picked his son up, and went to the kitchen while Ennis went to shower.

With Bobby sitting on the counter supposedly helping, Jack made him a sandwich. "There you go, bud."

"Thanks." Bobby ate his sandwich then went back upstairs where Jack made him brush his teeth again before tucking him back into bed.

Back downstairs, Jack made himself a sandwich and, hearing the water cut off, made one for Ennis too. He cleaned up, then went to their room, where he handed a half-dressed, damp-haired Ennis a plate.

Ennis chuckled softly. "One sandwich lead to another?"

"Yeah, pretty much."


	17. Chapter 17

"Ennis?" Jack called from the unused downstairs bedroom. "How long has it been since anybody's slept in here?"

It was Wednesday so Bobby was in school, but Ennis had been given the day off due to ice, mud, and otherwise bad riding conditions.

"Uh," Ennis was pulling off his jacket and gloves having just come in from outside. "Not since your parents were here. Why?"

Jack swiped his finger across the top of the dresser. "'Cause it's filthy,"

"Ah."

"I think we need a maid." Jack left the dusty bedroom and sat on the back of the couch. Before Ennis could question his sanity, Jack continued. "Neither you nor I clean, neither a us think to or like to. It sure as hell couldn't hurt. There has got to be some girl in town who's sick of waitressing."

Ennis sighed, knowing full well that once Jack had his mind on something there was no getting him off it. "We can look into it."

As a way of "looking into it," Jack made up some fliers and posted them around town. February rolled over into March without anything coming of the fliers, but just as Ennis was leaving work that first Friday in March, he noticed a girl maybe about 18 years old standing in front of a telephone pole, head tilted to one side, reading a flier, honeyblond ponytail blowing in the wind, a wadded up apron in her hands. She turned and saw Ennis. "Hey, this flier, it's for a job at that place you an' that other fellow run on the edge a town, ain't it?"

"Uh, yeah. It is." Ennis hadn't expected to be approached by prospective housekeepers; that was more Jack's thing.

"I'll do it."

Ennis blinked. "You uh, don't wanna think about it or nothin'?"

"I just walked out of my old job." She glanced sheepishly at the diner across the street. "I'll take this one."

With a sigh, Ennis tipped his hat back. "You better talk to Jack."

"Okay. Should I come down today, tomorrow?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"Okay." The girl grinned. "I'm Ellie, by the way."

"I'm Ennis. Uh, nice to meet you."

When he got home, Ennis told Jack about the encounter—Jack seemed thrilled. The next day in the late morning, Ellie showed up in jeans and a jacket, riding a beat up old green bicycle. The dogs ran up to her to investigate and she petted them then trotted up to the porch where Jack and Ennis were standing. "Hi."

Ellie spent the better part of the next hour being cheerfully interrogated by Jack and being shown around, meeting Bobby and all the animals before Jack announced, "She'll do."

Ellie giggled. "So when do I start?"

Jack glanced at the sun to judge the time. "How about now?"

"I make lunch?" She grinned.

"Yeah; we can figure out days and pay while we eat."

"Okay."

Ellie started working Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday starting the next week. The third Saturday she was there, Ellie met Ennis's girls for the first time—Alma had brought them by the day before so they could spend Spring Break with their father.

"Miss Ellie?" Junior asked, tugging on the leg of the older girl's jeans.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Can you braid my hair all fancy?"

Ellie smiled. "Sure thing."

"Me too!" Jenny shouted as she tumbled off the couch.

Bobby rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Star Trek.

Jack and Ennis were working in the barn around lunch time, joking around, throwing handfuls of wood shavings at each other and just generally goofing around. Ennis shoved Jack and Jack playfully kissed him.

"Okay, holy crap, didn't see that coming."

Jack and Ennis both turned to see Ellie, their blood running cold.

"Well okay then, damn, okay. Um…. Why did I come out here…?" She thought a short moment and smacked her leg. "Sandwiches. Me and the kids are making sandwiches, you want some?"

"Um," Jack glanced at Ennis, "uh, yeah, sandwiches sound good."

"Right, okay, I'll bring you sandwiches." Ellie went back inside and returned a short while later to give them sandwiches then went to the house again to watch the kids.

That evening once the kids were in bed, Jack caught Ellie as she was about to leave. "Listen, Ellie, I—"

"Hey, it's okay. I mean," she shrugged, "it's okay and not my business. You're both perfectly nice guys. Your personal matters don't change what I think of you. Good night." She smiled and left.

Mildly stunned, Jack went to the kitchen where Ennis was eating instant noodles. Jack sat and crossed his arms on the table. "She cares less than my mother."

Ennis mumbled something into his noodles then took a breath. "More people keep knowin'. I don't like it."

"Three people. Alma, my mother, and Ellie."

Ennis put his fork down. "And Randall, and I don't wanna know how many guys in Mexico."

Jack looked down. "None a them 're around here. And ya know what? We can't do anything about _any_ of them. We can just be glad that my Mama and Ellie don't care and Alma isn't inclined to run her mouth."

Ennis shook his head but said no more on the subject.

Mid-morning on Tuesday, Jack was alerted to Ellie's arrival by Coallie and Sheriff's cheerful barking. He waved to her from where he stood on a hill a ways away from the house. She waved back, leaned her bike against the fence, and went inside.

A while later, Jack came in just as Ellie was depositing Jenny and Bobby on the floor in front of the television where Junior was already watching Scooby Doo. Ellie ruffled Bobby's hair. "Hey, Jack, cold?"

"Yeah." Jack dropped his coat on the back of the couch. "Can't believe there are school's on break when there's still frost most mornings."

Ellie shrugged. "Once when I was in Junior High there was a foot of snow while I was on Spring Break. Hey, come help me make lunch?"

"Sure."

Ellie looked over her shoulder while washing celery in the sink. "So...don't mean to pry but, you and Ennis?" She gave Jack a mildly conspiratorial grin.

He rolled his eyes. "This is why you asked me to help, isn't it?"

"Yeah." She shrugged. "I don't actually need help; I'm just nosy. But, if you could peel potatoes, it _would_ make my life easier."

Jack chuckled, grabbed a knife, and started peeling potatoes.

"But, so, you and Ennis; there's gotta be a story there, yeah?"

"Ah, well." He shrugged one shoulder. "Of course there's a story."

"You gonna tell it?" she prodded.

Jack leaned to see out the door to make sure the kids were engrossed in the TV, then returned to peeling. "Yeah, I guess."

"So, where'd you meet?" Ellie sounded so enthusiastic Jack couldn't help but smile.

"There." He pointed out the window.

"The mountain?"

"Mhm. Summer of '63, nineteen years old, we both spent the summer herding sheep up on the mountain. Really, that's why we're here now. The place means something us, least to me, but even though he doesn't say it, I'm pretty sure Ennis feels the same way."

"That is so sweet."

"You think?" Jack looked at her, mildly surprised.

"Yeah!" Ellie continued preparations for soup. "That's really sweet."

"Well, thanks."

"So, if y'all were nineteen, I'm assuming that's before," she gestured toward the kids. "'Sides, no offense, but, I'm pretty sure you're older than, like, twenty three."

"Also, 1963 was eight years ago. Bobby's five."

"Oh, right." She laughed. "Of course. So, you met Ennis and then...?"

"Didn't see him for four years, got married, had a kid. He did the same. Then we met up again and things got complicated."

"I can imagine. How'd you end up back here, then?"

"Spent three years more or less trying to talk Ennis into runnin' away with me. Never really thought it'd work, hoped it would, but _never_ expected it to. Well, it worked."

Ellie laughed.

After Ennis got home, Ellie cornered her employers behind the house. "When's the last time you two had a nice dinner together?"

Ennis stared at her. Jack laughed once. "A _nice_ dinner? Never."

Ellie crossed her arms. "Get your butts in a truck, go have a boys' night out. The German place in town has half-price schnitzel and beer on Tuesdays. Do not argue." She trotted back into the house without a backward glance.

Jack looked at Ennis. "Do you have any idea what schnitzel is?"

"Nope." Ennis brushed his hands on his jeans. "I say we find out."


	18. Chapter 18

There weren't very many restaurants in Brokeback Village and even fewer that qualified as _nice_. The German place, Helga's, was one of them. Even though it was nice, it was friendly and, as Jack and Ennis discovered as they walked in, so was the owner. She smiled at them from behind the bar. "Good evening."

"We hear you have half priced Schnitzel on Tuesdays," Jack said. "But we don't know what that is."

The owner—judging by her name tag, which said "Ruth"—gestured them to a table in the mostly empty restaurant while saying, "It's breaded pork cutlets; it's good. That what you want?"

"I think so." Jack looked at Ennis, who nodded.

Ruth grinned. "And beer?"

"Of course."

Ennis shook his head at Jack's enthusiasm. "Yeah."

Jack and Ennis spent much of their dinner talking to Ruth, who seemed to know almost everyone in town, fro Ellie to Michael and his family to Bobby's teacher. The restaurant was named after Ruth's mother who had taught her to cook German food.

Ellie left after they got home. The kids were already in bed and had been fed dinner, so Jack and Ennis did the last few remaining chores and then went to bed themselves.

Jack woke suddenly. It was still fully dark outside. He looked at the clock. 3:46 a.m. He cursed and lay back against Ennis. A moment later he realized what had woken him. The wind was rattling angrily around the house. He paused, got out of bed and looked out the window. "Goddammit." It was snowing. Hard.

"Jack, what are you doin'?" Ennis grumbled sleepily.

"Lookin' out the window."

"Why?"

"It's snowing."

There was a pause. "You're fucking kidding me."

"Nope."

"Goddammit."

"Yup." Jack crawled back into bed. "For the record, this doesn't happen in Texas."

"Shut up."

"It's true."

Ennis put an arm around Jack. "Fuck Texas."

"I've dated a girl named Texas."

"Close enough, now shut up."

They lay in bed about another hour until when they'd ordinarily get up, then grumpily got out of bed.

Ennis caught one of the unhappy chickens to bring into the barn from the pen outside. "What is it with this mountain and snowin' at the _worst_ times?"

"I'm pretty sure it's just Wyoming."

"Naw, it's Brokeback." He put the disgruntled bird in a stall that had the top half of the door open. "I swear, random storm, chasing around pissed off livestock, I think I'm having flashbacks."

"Well, how about you refuse to say a word to me or meet my eyes to complete the effect."

Ennis shoved him. "Better idea, I'll bust your jaw again." Ennis stumbled as Jack shoved him back. "Oh, go get the kids up; I'll deal with the cows."

"Alright." As Jack went in, he pulled his gloves off with his teeth. He was just about to the stairs when the phone rang. He let out a breath, went back, and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey, Jack? It's Ellie. Listen, I can't get down to y'all in this snow. There's just no way."

"Oh, yeah, that figures. Don't worry about it. We'll see you when the weather clears up."

"Alright."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye."

He hung up, went upstairs and into his son's room. "Bobby," he said and turned on the lamp next to the bed, "need to get up."

Bobby rolled over and tugged his blanket over his face.

"I'm gonna wake the girls up. If you're not up by the time they are, I will let Jenny come get you up."

Bobby sat up quickly. "I'm awake."

Naturally, the kids knew almost immediately that it was snowing and were very eager to help—which really meant staging a massive snowball fight while their fathers weren't paying attention.

"Okay, okay, enough, enough." Jack picked his son up and set him in the snow-filled bed of his truck. "You can throw as many snowballs as you like," he picked the girls up and put them in the back of Ennis's truck, "just use the snow from the trucks so they get cleared out."

With a joyful war cry, the kids set about clearing out the trucks.

By lunchtime, Jack and Ennis were both damp and cold and the kids were very wet and very cold. The five of them ate heartily, then the kids took baths and watched _Star Trek_.

The next day went much the same way. By Friday evening, Jenny wasn't feeling well. By the next morning, neither was her sister. Within a few hours, Bobby was sick too.

Fairly late on Saturday night, the phone rang. Ennis was busy with Jenny who had started throwing up, so Jack answered it. "Hello?"

"Oh. Hello, Jack. Is Ennis there?"

"Alma, uh, no, he's kind of busy."

"Well, I was just calling to say I'm gonna come get the girls tomorrow." She paused then continued reluctantly concerned. "You sound tired."

"I'm fine but, Alma, I don't think the girls ought to go home with you just now."

"What? Why not?"

"We've had a snowstorm outta the blue, the roads are bad, and the kids—your girls and Bobby—are all sick."

"What do you mean they're sick?" Now Alma sounded rather upset.

"It's some kind of nasty cold, not the flu or anything like that, but they are not feeling well."

"Oh,okay... You had better be taking good care of them."

"I'm doin' my best. Ennis is too."

"He as tired as you sound?" She was quiet.

Jack sighed. "Yeah."

"Well, the two of you stay well. Call me when the girls are doin' better."

"We will."

"Night, then."

"Goodnight."

Alma hung up and Jack set the phone back on the hook, then went to relate the conversation to Ennis. Leaning against the wall in the upstairs hallway, Ennis nodded. "Yeah. It's probably best for everbody they stay here a while longer." He sighed. "Everybody's asleep for now."

"That's good."

"Yeah." Ennis headed to the stairs. "I'm gonna shower."

"Want me to heat up some soup or somethin?" Ennis nodded and Jack tucked the tag into Ennis's shirt. "You must be tired; you're normally so neat about your clothes." He gently ruffled Ennis's hair.

Both the weather and the kids' health had improved by Tuesday. Alma was called and the girls were home by Thursday.

Sitting on the porch, Ennis flicked a cigaret butt into a stubborn patch of snow where it sizzled and died. "I hope that's the last snow this season."

"I hope so, too, friend." Jack shook his head. "That was rough."

Ennis nodded.


	19. Chapter 19

Midday, midweek, in mid-April, Jack was out near the edge of the property, trying to clear what had once been a vegetable plot and, hopefully, would be again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement across the crest of a nearby hill, turned slightly, pulled the rifle out of the sheath on Nero's saddle, and shot the coyote as it trotted toward the house and barn.

Nero snorted and pawed the ground as Jack dismounted to examine the dead animal. With a grimace and a couple muttered curses, he went about disposing of the carcass. Jack was jut about to ride back to the house when a sound in the bushes distracted him. Cautiously, he pushed some greenery aside. He paused. "Well, dammit."

Ennis got home stepped out of his truck and stopped. A large crate, probably one left over from cleaning out the barn, was sitting upside down in the grass with a bucket of gravel on top of it. Ennis furrowed his brow and peeked between the crate slats. He then strode inside. "Jack, care to explain—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just shush and c'mere." Jack dragged Ennis out the back door. "Okay."

"Why is there a coyote pup under a crate in our front yard, and why can't we talk about it inside?"

Jack took a deep breath. "I shot its mother, but it's just a baby, so I'm not gonna shoot it."

"Well, we can't keep it. Are you crazy?"

"No! And I don't plan to keep it."

Then, what?" Ennis crossed his arms.

"ASPCA. Nearest center is in Laramie. We can take it there."

"Alright. When?"

"Figure we can drive down Friday."

"And why couldn't we have this conversation inside?"

"'Cause Bobby doesn't know I shot the mother. Now we can go back in." He opened the door. "Welcome home, by the way."

In bed Thursday night, Jack said, "You know, we ought to take the trailer." He tucked his face against Ennis's shoulder. "Case we end up wantin' to bring any animals back."

Ennis was quiet a bit. "Sure, whatever."

They hooked the trailer to Jack's truck and left early Friday morning, leaving Zack to watch the ranch much like he had before.

Bobby, sitting between his father and Ennis, slept slumped against Jack's side most of the drive, but was awake by the time they arrived. While the coyote pup was being turned over, Bobby entertained himself watching a pen full of puppies tumble over one another. A girl about Ellie's age with short, curly red hair and freckles kneeled next to him. "Hey there. You like the puppies?"

Bobby grinned and nodded. "Mhm!" His grin faded. "But Ennis says we can't get no more dogs."

"Oh, that's too bad. But it's good you already got dogs, huh?" She smiled, and he nodded. "So, who's Ennis?"

"My daddy's friend." Bobby pointed to where the two men were standing, talking to a clerk. "Ennis and my daddy have a ranch and we all live there."

"Oh, wow. So whatcha here for?"

"Daddy found a baby coyote so we brought it. Ennis thinks we have enough animals, but we brought the trailer just in case he changes his mind." Bobby nodded solemnly.

The red haired girl smiled, then jumped as Jack cleared his throat behind her. She stood quickly and brushed her apron off. "Oh, I'm sorry, hello." She glanced at the way Bobby had grabbed Jack's pants leg. "Is he your son?"

"He is." Jack stooped and picked Bobby up, then held out a hand. "I'm Jack Twist, and this is Bobby, if he didn't already say so."

The girl shook Jack's hand. "I'm Grace."

Ennis walked up a moment later. After a short conversation, Grace took them out to the stables. While Grace was showing them a cremello gelding, a little paint mare stuck her head out of the next stall and nuzzled Jack's arm. Jack smiled and patted the mare's nose. "Hey there. Grace, what's this one's story?"

Grace looked up. "This here's Lady. She's a good girl; still a bit thin, though. She was abandoned but she's in good hands now."

"Ennis." Jack turned to his partner.

Ennis started to say something, paused, and began again. "Jack, can we talk?"

Jack nodded and the two men stepped away down the stable while Grace picked Bobby up to let him pat Lady's nose.

Within an hour, the little paint mare was loaded in the trailer and Jack, Bobby, and Ennis were back in the truck headed home. Jack drove while Ennis stared out the window.

"By the way, Bobby," Jack said. "It's a couple weaks early but this is your birthday present."

Bobby clung excitedly to his father's jacket. "I'm getting a horse for my birthday?!"

"Mhm. And Ennis?"

"Hm?"

"Stop acting like you're upset. You like horses. I know you like havin' another horse."

Bobby giggled and lay himself across Ennis's lap.


	20. Chapter 20

Jack leaned on the fence, watching Nero and Lady eat, their tails flicking. He flicked his lighter open and closed absently. Ennis walked up next to him and leaned on the fence as well.

"Nice to have our own place."

Ennis grunted in agreement. "Nice to have everything done for once."

Jack nodded.

Ellie stepped out onto to porch. "Hey! One or another or both of you need to go to the grocery store."

"What for?" Ennis called back across the yard.

"Yer outta bread." Ellie crossed her arms.

Both men shrugged.

"And there's only three beers left."

Jack shot Ennis a look. "We'll be back in a little while, Ellie."

"Alright!" Ellie turned, rolled her eyes, and muttered to herself as she went back inside. "Men, I swear. It don't matter if we got no bread, but starting to run out of beer? Now _that's_ a crisis."

Bobby, laying on the floor, drawing, looked up. "You say somethin', Miss Ellie?"

"Oh. I'm just thinkin' out loud."

"What about?"

"That your daddy's crazy."

"I know." Bobby gave Ellie the most long suffering look a six year old can muster.

In the truck, Ennis said, "I don't think we should both go inta the store."

"Christ, Ennis!" Jack tossed his head in frustration. "You are being paranoid"

"I'm just sayin'—"

"Alright, fine. You shop, I'll go get a newspaper and have a smoke or somethin'." He gave Ennis a look that dared him to challenge Jack's plan. Ennis huffed but said no more.

And so, once in town, Jack left Ennis and the truck at the grocery store and walked down the street to the small newsstand outside the post office, bought a newspaper, sat on a bench, and read.

After a short while, a tall, lanky boy with tawny hair and gray eyes hesitantly inched up to Jack on his bench. "Uh, 'scuse me?"

Jack looked up at the boy.

"You know a place me an' my buddies could get a cheap drink, maybe somethin' to eat?" He gestured at two other boys standing a few feet away, listening. One had dark hair and looked to be at least part Latino; the other had hair so blond it was nearly white, but tan skin—like a human palomino. All three boys had torn jeans, scuffed boots, and threadbare shirts, and they all looked to be eighteen or nineteen years old.

"Yeah, I know a couple places." Jack folded the newspaper. "You boys ain't from around here, are ya?"

The tawny haired boy laughed once. "No, sir. We, uh, we're 'round these parts for a summer job."

"Up on the mountain?"

"Yessir."

Jack stood. "By any chance are y'all gonna be herdin' sheep?"

"How—" the boy looked back at his partners. "How'dya know?"

"I did the same thing summers a '62 an' '63. Worked for a man name a Joe Agguire."

"That's who we're working for." The palomino boy laughed.

"No shit?" Jack shook his head. "I am so sorry; man's a bastard."

"You got any wisdom to share with us, then?" The Latino boy leaned on the bench.

Jack laughed. "You have no idea."

Half an hour later, Jack's story telling was interrupted by Ennis's voice. "What the devil are you doin'?"

Jack looked around. "These boys are workin' this summer up on the mountain herdin' sheep for Agguire."

Ennis stood still in his tracks. "No."

"Yeah." Jack grinned and the boys nodded.

"How the hell is that sonofabitch not dead yet?"

Jack snorted. "No clue. D'you get anythin' that's gotta keep cold?"

Ennis shook his head.

"Then I say we oughta take these fellows an' get somethin' to eat."

Ennis hesitated. "What about Ellie an' the kids?"

Jack pointed at a payphone across the street.

The waitress leaned across the table to set down a cup. As she walked away, one of the boys rather obviously stared at her butt.

"Carlos, behave. You have a girlfriend, remember?" Danny, the pale haired boy, reprimanded his Latino friend before eating some six french fries at once. Carlos managed to look somewhat chagrined. Aaron, the other boy, laughed.

A few minutes later, Aaron said, "Uh, if it isn't too much trouble, ya think you could come up to the drop off on Friday, see us off?" He shrugged. "Kinda silly but it'd be, I guess, reassuring."

"Well, I gotta work," Ennis mumbled at his food.

"I'll go." Jack smirked. "Agguire's gonna think he's seein' ghosts."

The boys chuckled. Ennis shook his head.

Trucks, trailers of horses, sheep and sheep dogs, Aaron, Carlos, Danny, and several other men were all at the drop off when Jack drove up. He walked over to the three boys where they were watching the sheep be counted as they flowed off the trailer into a pen. "Hey there. Ready to be cut off from the world 'til August?"

Danny shrugged. "We better be."

"Yeah, you had." Jack nodded at the mules standing in a little huddle under a tree. "For the love of all that is holy, don't get the same thing to eat all summer. You won't ever want to eat it again if you do."

Aaron laughed quietly. "Alright."

Carlos muttered something in Spanish.

"That would be a bad idea. Leave that to whatever coyotes you can't shoot. Yes, I speak Spanish."

Danny looked at Carlos. "Did you say we could eat the sheep."

Carlos shrugged. "Maybe."

"Who's that you boys talkin' to?" Joe Agguire, very gray, nearly going white, walked up, just as sour as ever.

"Been a long time, Mr. Agguire." Jack stepped forward. "Met these boys in town, heard they were workin' for you. Just here to see them off."

Agguire narrowed his eyes. "Do I know you?"

"Sure you do. Jack Twist. Me and Ennis Del Mar worked for you summer a sixty three."

The aging foreman blanched slightly, coughed to cover it. "Oh that's right. Two a you did a hell of a job, didn't you?" He sniffed derisively. "What you doin' here now?"

"Own a ranch near town. Run it with Ennis, actually; doin' real well."

"Good for you," Agguire said coldly and turned away.

A few days later, on May sixteenth, Jack swatted Ennis on the rear as they dressed. "Happy birthday, cowboy." He grinned.

Ennis half smiled and shrugged.

Outside, it was a bright, clear Sunday. Around lunch, Jack stood near the barn, staring up at the mountain. "Eight years ago today we were up on the mountain." He looked at Ennis. "Why didn't you say nothin' 'bout it bein' your birthday?"

"Didn't seem important." Ennis scuffed his boot in the dirt.

Jack walked up to him, put a hand on each of his shoulders, and kissed him. "I think it's real important."

Ennis rubbed Jack's arm and pulled away. "Never thought things'd ever be like this."

"I always hoped they could be."

Ennis looked at Jack, honestly smiling like he rarely did. "Always knew you're crazy."

Jack laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of this particular story! Hope you've enjoyed the ride.


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